iiiii 


LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,  NJ. 

The  George  J.  Finney 

Collection  of  Shaker  Literature 

Given  in  Memory  of  His  Uncle 

The  Rev.  John  Clark  Finney 

Class  of  1907 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

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Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


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Shaker  Sermons: 


SCKIPTO-RATIONAL. 


CONTAINING   THE    SUBSTANCE   OF 


SHAKER    THEOLOGY 


TOGETHER  WITH 


REPLIES  AND   CRITICISMS 


LOGICALLY  AND  CLEARLY  SET  FORTH. 


H.   L.   EADS, 

Bishop  of   South  Union,  Ky. 


'■  The  Supreme  good  in  the  mind  is  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  the  highest  virtue  of  the 
mind  is  to  know  God." —  Spinoza. 

"  There  is  no  soul  so  feeble  but  that,  well  directed,  it  may  attain  to  absolute  control  over 
the  [animal]  passions."— Descartes. 

"  And  this  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might  know  Thee  the  only  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ 
whom  Thou  hast  sent. "—Christ. 


SHAKERS,   N.    Y. 

THE    SHAKER   MANIFESTO, 

1879. 


CONTENTS. 


N°'  PAGE. 

1.  Harmony  of  Truth   -[ 

Duality  of  God 5 

2.  God  —  Indi  visible 7 

Three  kinds  of  Happiness '     12 

3.  God  —  Immutable j4 

The  Trinity I5 

4.  Retrospection 22 

5.  True  Happiness 29 

Plato  and  Locke 3I 

6.  Cause  of  True  Happiness 36 

Mission  of  Truth gg 

Final  Consummation 45 

7.  Abstract  Evil 4g 

Perverted  Amat.veness 51 

8.  God's  Love 56 

9.  Scripture  Analysis 65 

Revelation  subject  to  Reason 69 

10.  Pre-existence  and  Godship  of  Christ 75 

Christ,  in  the  Female 83 

11.  Christ,  the  Son  of  God 87 

Jesus,  the  Christ 93 

12.  Types  of  Christ 98 

Mysteries  explained 99 

18.  Christ's  Second  Appearing 107 

14.  The  Devil 114 

Spinoza 120 

15.  Bible  Metaphor 122 

Joshua's  Command 125 

16.  Conception  of  Christ . .   129 

17.  Orthodoxy  and  Spiritualism '. 137 

18.  Tyndall  criticised 144 

19.  Rev.  Dr.  McCosh  criticised 151 

20.  Logic  of  H.  W,   Beecher  dissected 161 

21.  The  Shaker  Problem 167 

22.  Analysis  of  Shakerism 173 

23.  Has  Jesus  any  followers  ? 179 

24.  Defense  of  Shakerism 183 

25.  God's  Word 189 

26.  Literal  Resurrection,  reply  to  Rev.  Dr.  Talmage   193 

27.  The  Judgment  of  Sin 201 

28.  Infidel  mistakes,  reply  to  Colonel  R.  G .  Ingersoll 211 


PREFACE  BY  THE  EDITOR. 


This  Book  of  Sermons  scarcely  needs  a  preface.  The  author 
and  orator  began  life  among  the  Shakers  when  less  than  one  year 
old,  and  may  therefore  be  supposed  to  be  excellent  authority  upon 
Shaker  theology.  It  is  the  first  book  ever  written  for  publication, 
by  an  individual  whose  whole  life  has  been  consecratedly  devoted 
to  and  guided  by  the  principles  of  Shakerism ;  and  ^he  tenor  of 
the  discourses  denotes  "  words  fitly  spoken,  like  apples  of  gold  and 
pictures  of  silver."  The  sermons  embrace  nearly  or  quite  every 
feature  of  Shaker  polity,  and  will  be  highly  appreciated  by  vei-y 
many  as  a  book  of  reference  upon  the  subject  of  Shakerism.  That 
the  author  is  a  most  excellent  representation  of  what  Shaker  prin- 
ciples can  do  for  a  man,  we  are  only  proud  to  vouch  therefor ;  and 
we  feel  a  certainty  that  in  the  perusal  of  the  followiiig  pages  by 
the  seeker  after  truth,  the  reader  will  feel  the  hallowed  influences 
of  one  who  has  been  with  the  Christ,  and  who  walks  and  lives  with 
the  Christ ;  and  will  also  realize  that  he  is  one  of  the  "  Savio^irs  to 
come  upon  mount  Zion,  to  judge  the  mount  of  Esau.''''  To  the  rear- 
ing of  such  individuals  as  Saviours  is  Shakerism  devoted.  That  it 
is  successful,  as  evidenced  in  the  author  of  these  Sermons,  gives  a 
renewed  confidence  that  Virgin  Purity,  Non-reaistance,  Peace, 
Equality  of  Inheritance  and  Unspottedness  from,  the  luorld — the 
fundamental  principles  of  Shakerism  —  have  not  been,  nor  are 
they  preached  and  practiced  in  vain. 


HARMONY  OF  TRUTH. 


I  begin  my  discourse  with  the  eunnciation  of  two  or  three 
aphorisms ;  neither  of  which,  I  presume,  any  lionest,  unbiased 
mind,  of  ordinary  comprehension,  will  have  an  inclination  to 
gainsay  ;  for  they  consist  of  a  simple  declaration  of  the  harmony 
of  truth. 

First.  —  All  truths,  both  spiritual  and  natural,  harmonize. 
One  truth  cannot  be  opposed  to  another  truth  ;  hence,  any  two 
statements  or  propositions  that  antagonize  or  conflict,  one  or  the 
other,  or  both,  must  be  false. 

Secondly.  —  In  the  end,  nothing  but  truth  will  have  been  or 
can  be  advantageous  to  any  soul ;  hence,  it  would  be  wisdom  in 
us  to  cast  off  all  prejudice  and  prepossession,  and  make  any 
required  sacrifice  to  obtain  the  "  knowledge  of  the  truth, " 
especially  that  sacred  truth  by  which  we  expect  to  obtain  our 
redemption  and  the  salvation  of  the  soul.  It  is  necessary  that 
some  of  our  discourses  should  be  mainly  argumentative  or 
theological,  from  the  fact  that  mere  declaration  of  truth, 
scriptural  or  otherwise,  does  not  in  this  day  seem  to  satisfy  the 
inquisitive  mind,  and  people  must  learn  to  think  correctly  before 
they  can  either  speak  or  act  correctly. 

Well  nigh  two  centuries  ago  a  certain  philosopher  penned  the 
following : 

First.  —  That  a  man  use  no  words  but  such  as  he  makes  the 
sign  of  a  certain  determined  object  in  his  mind  in  thinking, 
which  he  can  make  known  to  another. 

Secondly.  —  That  he  use  the  same  word  steadily  for  the  sign 
of  the  same  immediate  object  of  his  mind  in  thinking. 

Thirdly.  —  That  he  join  those  words  together  in  propositions, 
according  to  the  grammatical  rules  of  the  language  he  speaks  in. 

Fourthly.  —  That  he  unite  those  sentences  into  a  coherent  dis- 
course. Thus,  and  thus  only,  I  humbly  conceive,  can  any  one 
preserve  himself  from  the  confines  and  suspicions  of  jargon. 


2  Harmony  of  Truth. 

Were  all  men  to  observe  these  rules,  wliicli  I  most  sincerely 
approve,  there  would  be  but  little  difference  among  men  on  any 
subject.  With  their  terms  clearly  defined,  strictly  applied  and 
adliered  to,  no  two  really  honest  men  can  very  widely  differ ; 
each  would  yield  in  turn  in  theology  and  ethics,  just  as  they  are 
compelled  to  do  in  mathematics. 

Every  rational  creature  will  admit  that  the  salvation  of  the 
soul  is,  or  should  be,  paramount  to  every  earthly  consideration 
whatever  ;  and  he  who  fails  in  the  attainment  of  this  fails  in  all, 
and  he  who  is  fortunate  enough  to  secure  this  lacks  in 
nothing  that  is  worth  contending  for.  "For  what  is  a  man 
profited  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ? " 
or  "  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul."  Matt,  xvi, 
26.  Since  then,  from  these  w^ords  of  our  Saviour,  a  man's  soul  is  of 
more  value  to  him  than  all  worlds  beside,  he  ono-ht  to  be  willins: 
to  forsake  the  world,  with  all  its  habits,  customs,  maxims  and 
practices,  for  his  soul's  sake. 

It  appears  that  this  globe  now  contains  over  1,100,000,000  souls, 
and  there  are  eleven  hundred  different  religions  —  one  creed,  if  I 
may  so  speak,  for  every  hundred  millions,  differing  from  all  the 
rest ;  and,  as  there  can  be  but  one  right  way,  a  hollow  cry  comes 
up  from  the  "  vasty  deep "  asking  which  one  of  the  eleven 
hundred  is  right ;  any  line  diverging  in  the  minutest  degree 
from  the  right  one  tnust  he  wrong,  and  the  further  it  is  traveled 
the  more  distant  the  traveler  will  be  from  the  right  way  ;  hence 
it  becomes  a  matter  of  the  utmost  importance  for  each  one  to 
hiow  he  is  right  —  not  to  guess  at  it,  but  know  it.  You  will  ask 
me,  then,  if  there  is  any  possibility  of  acquiring  this  knowledge  ; 
and  in  response  I  give  an  affirmative  answer.  In  the  words  of 
the  Saviour,  as  to  the  doctrine,  he  says :  "  My  doctrine  is  not 
mine,  but  His  that  sent  me.  If  any  man  will  do  His  will  he  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of  God,"  etc.  Matt,  iii,  8. 
Not  guess  at  it,  but  know.  As  to  His  true  disciples  and  follow- 
ers. He  has  given  us  one  criterion  or  mark  —  and  one  only  —  by 
which  they  are  to  be  known:  "Ye  shall  know  them  by  their 
fruits.  Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns  or  figs  of  thistles  ? " 
But  after  all  this,  and  without  troubling  yourselves  to  look  into 
the  different  sects  for  the  good  fruits,  which  are  the  only  real  evi- 
dence, you  rest  in  your  easy  chair,  simply  saying  you  know 

"The good  must  merit  God's  peculiar  care, 
But  who  but  God  can  tell  us  who  they  are  ?  " 


Infinity   of  God.  3 

thus  giving  evidence  of  one  of  two  conditions,  viz.:  Your  own 
lukewarnmess  and  lack  of  interest  in  your  soul's  salvation,  or 
your  infidelity  respecting  the  existence  of  any  religious  body 
where  those  fruits  can  be  found ;  and  some  of  you,  when  you 
have  found  the  fruits  and  acknowledge  them,  then  find  fault 
with  the  doctrine  —  at  the  same  time  acknowledging  you  do  not 
keep  the  commandments  of  God  ;  and  it  is  only  such  that  should 
know  of  the  doctrines  or  should  presume  to  judge  them. 

Nearly  all  men  agree  that  among  the  thousand  forms  of  relig- 
ious belief  some  one  must  be  right,  and,  as  before  said,  the  conse- 
quence is,  that  every  other  one  that  essentially  differs  with  it 
must  be  w^rong  and  inadequate  to  the  purposes  of  salvation. 
Every  religious  system  has  for  its  foundation  or  formation  some 
reference  to  a  Supreme  Being  or  Beings,  who  is,  or  are  able  to 
reward  its  followers  for  well  doing,  and  punish  them  for  evil 
doing,  and,  as  this  seems  to  be  the  beginning  of  religion  itself, 
I  purpose  offering  a  few  remarks  on  this  subject.  I  shall  try  to 
remember  what  I  said  in  the  beginning  respecting  the  necessity  of 
having  distinct  ideas  in  the  mind,  defining  terms,  etc.,  for  I  by 
no  means  wish  to  leave  the  thoughtful  part  of  the  audience,  es- 
pecially, in  the  dark  respecting  my  own  position.  Laying  aside 
all  others  for  the  present,  I  bring  myself  to  the  ground  called 
Christian,  whose  religious  systems  have  been  taken  from  this 
Book  —  the  old  and  new  Testaments  ;  and  so  multifarious  are  the 
forms  derived  from  the  same  reading  that  it  seems  to  almost  jus- 
tify the  remark,  that, 

"  Faith,  gospel,  all  seemed  made  to  be  disputed, 
And  none  had  sense  enough  to  be  confuted." 

I  am  not  so  uncharitable  as  to  conclude  that  this  state  of  things 
has  arisen  entirely  from  the  dishonesty  of  tlie  race,  but  rather 
more  from  education,  prepossession,  and  a  want  of  distinct  ideas, 
clear  definitions  of  terms,  and  their  consistent  application. 

GOD,  UNITY  AND  DUALITY    KECONCILED. 

]^o  critical  Bible  student  can  fail  to  have  taken  cognizance  of 
this  truth  :  that  throughout  sacred  writ  God  is  spoken  of  in  two 
senses,  the  infinite  and  the  finite,  or  subordinate  sense.  Thus, 
whenever  God  is  spoken  of  as  coming,  going,  traveling  personally 
from  one  place  to  another,  it  then  must  be  understood  in  the^^ 
nite  or  subordinate  sense  ;  because  in  this  sense  He  is  considered 
as  being  less  than  something  else.     If  He  travel,  there  must  be 


4  Harmony  of  Tkuth. 

some  place  where  He  is  not,  to  which  He  is  going ;  hence,  He  must 
be  circumscribed.  We  cannot  help  associating  with  such  being 
the  idea  of  extension,  ligure,  size,  etc., —  such  as  angel  or  man. 
Also,  when  God  is  represented  as  having  forgotten  something, 
not  knowing,  or  changing  His  mind  or  purpose,  it  is  understood 
as  speaking  of  God  subordinate^  not  infinite.  Of  the  Infinite,  or 
Supreme  Being,  it  is  truly  said,  "  His  purposes  alter  not  —  He 
is  without  change  or  shadow  of  turning."  The  same  holy  writ 
makes  the  distinction  clear  by  the  saying  of  Christ.  When  ac- 
cused by  the  Jews  of  making  himself  God,  He  showed  them  that 
they  were  "  called  gods  unto  whom  the  word  of  God  came." 
Moses  was  God  to  the  children  of  Israel  in  this  subordinate  sense  : 
"  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  see,  I  have  made  thee  a  god  to 
Pharaoh  ;  and  Aaron,  thy  brother,  shall  he  thy  prophet,"  etc. 
Exodus,  vii,  1.  Joshua  was  called  Jehovah.  Elijah,  God  the 
Lord,  etc.  To  the  careful  reader  the  distinction  is  clear.  But 
God,  when  spoken  of  as  "  the  All  and  in  all,"  "  in  whom  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being,"  is  understood  to  be  the  "  Eternal 
Unity,"  the  "  Infinite "  Jehovah,  and  He  it  is  whom  we  have 
assembled  here  to  worship,  and  Him  only.  Almost  without  ex- 
ception every  intelligent,  unbiased  mind,  with  whom  I  have  come 
in  coiitact,  acknowledges  that  God  in  the  supreme  sense,  is  Infin- 
ite spirit-indivisible,  immutable,  uncaused,  self-existent,  omnis- 
cient, and  omnipresent-filling  immensity  —  the  creator  and  arbi- 
ter of  the  Universe,  permeating  all  worlds  and  all  existences  at  all 
times,  which  remove  the  necessity  of  His  going  and  coming.  But, 
strange  as  it  must  appear,  many  good-meaning  persons,  after  this 
admission,  stultify  themselves  by  admitting  a  plurality  of  supremes, 
or  divisibility  in  the  Supreme,  to  favor  some  theological  dogma 
or  scheme  of  redemption,  that  they  have  fixed  in  their  own  minds, 
or  others  have  fixed  there  for  them.  The  merest  tyro,  having 
taken  but  his  first  lesson  in  inductive  philosophy,  cannot  help 
realizing  the  fact  that  an  infinite  existence  is  indivisible.  Truth 
never  conflicts.  The  term  infinite  signifies  "  without  hounds^'' 
This  seems  to  be  either  forgotten  or  ignored.  We  say  of  sj)ace 
that  it  is  infinite^  but  draw  a  line  through  it ;  we  then  have  two 
finite  spaces^  wdi en  infinite  space  disappears.  I  know  it  may  be 
argued  that  a  line  beginning  at  a  given  point  and  extending  in 
any  direction  without  end  may  be  called  an  infinite  line,  and  that 
this  idea  might,  by  parity  of  reasoning,  be  applied  to  dividing 
space ;  and  even  should  this  be  conceded  as  sound  reasoning, 


Duality   of  God.  5 

which  I  deny,  the  same  cannot  l)e  applied  to  an  infinite  being  or 
existence.  Thus,  I  think  it  clearly  demonstrated  that  such  a  thing 
as  an  infinite  plurality,  or  j^^urality  of  infinites,  is  impossible. 
I  am  aware  that  ive  are  believed  to  hold  to  the  dogma  of  duality 
in  Deity,  male  and  female.  It  is  repugnant  to  reason  it.  But  I 
will  try  to  clear  this  point.  It  is  admitted  by  all  that  of  the  at- 
tributes ascribed  to  Deity  some  are  considered  masculine,  others 
feminine ;  and  hence  comes  the  idea  of  Father  and  Mother  of  the 
universe.  We  admit  the  revelation  of  these  attributes  of  the 
Eternal  Unity  by  son  and  daughter;  that  is  to  say,  God  as 
father,  or  the  fatherly  character  of  God,  was  revealed  ly  the  Son, 
Christ  Jesus  /  and  God  as  mother,  or  the  motherly  character  of 
God,  was  revealed  hy  the  daughter  (Ann  Lee).  Thus,  "  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,"  not  of  m^an  only  but  also  of  woman,  male 
and  female,  constitutes  the  duality  of  God,  and  dual  only  in  this 
subordinate  sense  being  equally  manifest  in  and  through  finite 
human  beings,  who  are  dual,  male  and  female.  Thus  the  appai- 
ently  conflicting  ideas  of  unity  and  duality  are  reconciled.  In 
this  I  can  perceive  nothing  irrational,  nothing  but  what  any  dis- 
passionate, reasonable  mind  would  readily  admit.  I  will,  how- 
ever, very  frankly  allow,  that,  any  man  who  should  declare  that 
God  in  the  highest  sense  was  the  Eternal  Unity,  and  afterward 
declare  he  was  the  Eternal  Duality,  or  Eternal  Trinity,  {Eter- 
nal Three)  would  stultify  himself,  because  either  of  the  latter 
would  negative  the  former,  and  we  should  not  know  at  last  what 
the,  man  did  believe.  I  fully  concur  in  the  remarks  of  John  Locke 
on  this  subject.  "  Every  deity  "  that  men  own  above  one  is  an 
infallible  evidence  of  their  ignorance  of  Him,  and  a  proof  that 
they  have  no  true  notion  of  God  (in  the  highest  sense)  where 
nnity,  infinity,  and  eternity  are  excluded."  But  if,  as  Christ  says, 
"  they  were  called  gods,  unto  whom  the  word  of  God  came,  that 
the  scriptures  might  not  be  broken,"  I  have  no  difficulty  in  ap- 
plying this  high  term  in  the  subordinate  sense  to  the  Son  of  God. 
Nor  would  I  exclude  Jeremiah  from  among  the  number  of  the 
*'  prophets  of  the  Lord,"  for  applying  the  same  high  title  to  the 
daughter.  "  This  is  the  name  whereby  she  shall  be  called  :  The 
Lord  our  righteousness."  Jer.  xxxiii,  16.  Perhaps  I  have  drawn 
too  largely  on  your  patience,  but  I  wished  to  make  a  fair  begin- 
ning, so  as  to  leave  no  one  in  the  dark,  to  carp  at  our  doctrines 
without  understanding  them.  We  claim  that  the  son  and  daugh- 
ter already  named  now  stand  at  the  head  of  the  new  creation  of 


6  Harmony  of  Truth. 

God,  and  we,  their  children,  in  the  "  unity  of  their  spirit  and  the 
bond  of  peace,"  are  striving  to  follow  their  example,  by  obeying 
their  teaching  and  walking  as  they  walked,  and  by  so  doing  have 
found  that  peace  which  this  world  can  neither  give  nor  takeaway, 
and  may  become  "  heirs  and  joint  heirs  with  Christ,"  who  has 
said  :  "  Be  of  good  cheer,  for  I  have  overcome  the  world  ;  "  the 
"  prince  of  this  world  cometh  and  hath  nothing  in  me,"  "  and  to 
him  that  overconieth  will  I  grant  to  sit  with  me  in  my  throne, 
as  I  also  overcome  and  am  sit  down  with  my  Father  in  His  throne." 
Rev.  iii,  21.  These  are  the  great  and  glorious  promises  to  all 
who  will  take  up  a  daily  cross  and  follow  Christ  in  the  regenerciy 
tioii  —  not  generation^  but  re-generation  ;  not  to  those  who  have 
a  blind  faith  in  his  atoning  blood  and  still  lead  a  worldly  life ; 
but  to  those  who  "  walk  even  as  He  walked,"  and  "  have  followed 
Him  in  the  regeneration."  And  the  invitation  is  now  extended 
to  every  sin-sick  soul.  To  every  one  who  "  panteth  after  right- 
eousness as  the  hart  for  the  water-brook,"  we  "  say  come,  without 
money  or  without  price  "  and  "  partake  of  the  waters  of  life  freely," 
for  now  has  come  salvation  and  strength,  and  the  kingdom  of  our 
God  and  the  power  of  Christ,     Rev.  xiv,  10. 


GOD  INDIVISIBLE. 


There  are  three  things  I  know,  and  the  fonrth  I  strongly  be- 
lieve. These  are :  First,  I  must  convince  you  that  you  are  in 
error,  and  building  on  a  sandy  foundation,  instead  of  the  rock  of 
truth  ;  and,  secondly,  must  convince  you  that  we  are  right  and 
building  on  the  true  foundation  ;  and,  thirdly,  nnist  convince  you 
that  by  entering  the  fold,  adopting  our  life,  and  submitting  to  the 
law  of  Christ,  as  3'ou  can  be  made  to  understand  it,  you  will 
thereby  be  rendered  more  iiappy  in  this  life,  and  be  assured  of 
eternal  life  and  heaven  in  the  world  to  come.  And  additionally, 
I  am  strongly  impressed  with  the  belief,  that,  after  having  been 
fully  convinced  of  the  facts  as  we  see  them,  few  of  you  will  for- 
sake the  world  for  Christ ;  for  truly  He  hath  said  :  "  For  wide  is 
the  gate  and  broad  is  the  way  that  leadeth  to  destruction,  and 
many  there  be  which  go  in  thereat ;  and  straight  is  the  gate  and 
narrow  is  the  way  which  leadeth  unto  life,  and  few  there  be  that 
find  it."  Matt,  vii,  13,  14.  "  Strive,  therefore,  to  enter  in  at 
the  straio-ht  ffate,  for  many  will  seek  and  shall  not  be  able."  When 
once  the  master  of  tlie  house  is  risen  up,  and  hath  shut  the  door, 
and  ye  begin  to  stand  without  and  to  knock  at  the  door,  saying, 
"Lord,  Lord,  open  unto  us.  He  shall  answer  and  say  unto  you,  I 
know  you  not  whence  ye  are."  Luke  xiii,  21,  5.  Sorrowful  as 
it  is,  I  feel  a  strong  degree  of  certitude  that  this  will  be  the  con- 
dition of  the  most  of  you  unless  you  take  warning,  turn  from  tlie 
world,  and  strive  —  yea^  agonize  —  to  "  enter  in  at  the  straight 
gate."  That  the  nominal  professors  of  Christianity  are  in  error, 
both  in  faith  and  practice,  and  that  none  of  their  schemes  of  sal- 
vation will  insure  to  them  either  happiness  or  heaven,  here  or 
hereafter,  I  do  most  conscientiously  believe.  They  being  under 
the  "  veil  of  the  flesh,"  imbued  with  its  lusts,  are  in  spiritual 
darkness ;  hence  all,  or  nearly  all  of  their  ideas  concerning  God 
and  Christ  —  their  true  character  and  their  demands  upon  them  — • 
must  necessarily  be  imperfect. 


8  Acceptance  with  God. 

After  admitting,  as  I  presumed  you  to  do,  M'hat  was  said  in 
a  former  discourse,  that  the  Supreme  Being  was  infinite  in  His 
existence,  in  order  to  maintain  your  consistency,  you  cannot  attach 
to  His  being  plurality  in  any  sense,  and  His  indivisibility  precludes 
the  possibility  of  making  either  two,  three,  or  more  of  the  same 
being.  His  immutability  also  debars  you  from  any  change  in 
Him,  either  in  thought,  word,  state,  character  or  deed.  His  om- 
niscience being  acknowledged,  there  is  nothing  but  what  He 
knows.  His  omnipresence  admitted,  tliere  is  then  no  point  of 
space  where  He  is  not. 

Can  you  not  then  see  the  inconsistency  and  impertinence  of  those 
sonorous  invocations,  vehement  utterances,  loud  vociferations  and 
demands  upon,  as  well  as  instructions,  given  to  God,  which  we  so 
frequently  hear  from  your  pulpits  and  in  your  public  assemblies, 
as  though  God  were  deaf  or  "  had  gone  on  a  journey,"  or  at  least 
was  not  nearer  than  the  lower  strata  of  clouds  ?  I  am  glad,  how- 
ever, to  admit  that  some  are  honestly  sincere,  occupying,  as  best 
they  can  with  their  present  light,  the  talent  God  has  given  them  ; 
such  will  be  accepted  of  him.  For  saith  the  apostle  :  "  Of  a  truth, 
I  perceive  that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons.  But  in  every  na- 
tion he  that  feareth  Him  and  worketh  righteousness  is  accepted 
with  Him."  Acts  x,  35.  But  acceptance  merely  is  not  salva- 
tion^ as  Jew,  Gentile,  Pagan,  Mahomedan  or  heathen,  are  all 
alike  accepted  of  God,  who  live  up  to  the  best  light  that  He  has 
vouchsafed  to  them  ;  but  there  is  only  one  way  to  be  saved,  that 
is,  to  "  walk  as  Christ  walked,"  and  "  overcome  the  world  within 
as  He  overcame."  Even  though  some  may  be  sincere,  I  have  lit- 
tle faith  in  the  efficacy  of  the  word  from  the  mouth  of  a  hireling 
preacher.  Every  servant  of  God  should  be  a  producer.  Should 
put  his  "  hands  to  work  and  his  heart  to  God,"  who  will  give  him 
words  to  speak  as  occasion  demands.  But  (I  Avish  not  to  offend) 
there  are  many  who  say  they  are  the  called  ministers  of  God  M'ho 
barter  their  God-given  faculties  for  gold.  What  observing 
person  has  not  discovered  that  where  the  largest  pile  of  money  is 
offered  there  is  the  greatest  call  of  God  ?  For  instance :  Should 
the  people  of  Logan  offer  a  priest  a  salary  of  five  hundred  dollars 
a  year  for  preaching  to  them,  and  the  people  of  Warren  should 
raise  the  pile  to  a  thousand,  who  does  not  know  that  the  call  of 
God  would  be  in  Warren  ?  To  such  one  I  would  say :  "  Paid 
hypocrite,  God  is  within  thee,  making  up  the  record  which  thou 
slialt  be  obliged  to  iiice,  even  the  very  moti^'es  that  actuate  thee. 


God  Indivisible.  9 

and  by  these  shalt  thou  be  judged.  But  whilst  the  omnipresent 
is  within  thee,  the  tribunal  and  focal  power  by  which  thou  wilt 
be  tried  may,  at  present,  be  at  some  distance  from  thee.  "  Know 
ye  not  the  saints  shall  judge  the  world  ? "  1  Cor.  vi,  2.  Paul 
still  goes  further:  "Know  ye  not  that  we  shall  judge  angels. 
How  much  more  the  things  that  pertain  to  this  life  ? "  This  is 
doubtless  God's  order  of  judgment,  who  first  gave  all  power  to 
the  Son,  and  He  in  like  manner  delegated  the  same  to  His  true 
followers ;  hence,  to  come  to  judgment  is  to  come  to  the  order 
of  God,  to  repent  of,  confess  and  forsake  all  known  sin,  and  hence- 
forward lead  a  godly  life,  "walk  righteously,  soberly,  and  godly 
in  this  present  evil  world."  This  is  the  first  link  to  connect  the 
sinner  with  his  maker  :  "  For  as  I  live,"  saith  tlie  Lord,  "  every 
knee  shall  bow,  and  everj^  tongue  shall  confess  to  God."  Rom. 
xiv,  11.  To  confess  to  God,  then,  is  to  confess  to  the  agents  of 
liis  appointing,  or  to  God  through  them,  and  by  these  agents  to 
be  judged,  received  or  rejected.  The  meaning  I  here  attach  to 
the  term  confess  is  to  reveal  and  acknowledge  your  faults  and 
bring  your  hidden  deeds  to  the  light.  In  this  sense  it  is  impos- 
sible for  any  one  to  confess  to  the  Supreme,  who  knows  your  mo- 
tive to  sin  before  your  action,  and  who  M'as  remonstrating  with 
you  through  your  conscience  at  the  time  of  its  commission. 
Joshua  says  to  Aclian  :  "  Achan,  my  son,  give,  I  pray  thee,  glory 
to  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  and  make  confession  unto  Him  ;  and 
tell  me  noM^  what  thou  hast  done ;  hide  it  not  from  me."  Joshua 
vii,  19.  This  is  the  wa}^  and  the  only  acceptable  way  to  confess 
to  God  —  the  only  way  any  soul  can  find  forgiveness  and  gain 
the  victory  over  his  sinful  propensities,  and  rise  into  newness  of 
life,  and  become  a  branch  of  the  "  living  vine."  The  first  thing 
that  Christ  did  after  His  resurrection,  was  to  commission  His  dis- 
ciples to  preach.  He  said  to  them  :  "  As  my  Father  hath  sent 
me,  even  so  send  I  you.  "  "  "Whosoever  sins  ye  remit  are  remitted 
unto  them ;  and  whosoever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained. " 
John  xxii,  23.  Bat  previously  He  said  to  Peter,  when  He  pro- 
spectively appointed  him  head  of  the  church:  "  I  will  give  unto 
thee  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  whatsoever 
thou  shalt  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven,  and  whatso- 
ever thou  shalt  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven."  Matt. 
xvi,  19.  Thus  you  cannot  fail  to  see  clearly  what  God's  order 
of  confession  is  ;  and  that  the  power  to  loose  and  bind,  remit  and 
retain,  was  committed  to  earthen  vessels,  and  very  justly  and  ra- 
2 


10  Confession  of  Sin. 

tionally  so,  because  every  sin  that  man  commits  is  against  him- 
self and  his  fellow-man.  But  the  thief  who  steals  jonr  horse  or 
your  gold  is  the  very  first  one  to  cry  out  and  say  he  does  not  be- 
lieve in  confessing  sin  to  man  ;  he  would  much  rather  confess  to 
the  horse  he  had  stolen,  or  go  back  in  the  dark  hour  of  midnight 
and  confess  to  God  while  he  was  bitting  another.  Not  very  dis- 
similar to  this  is  the  man  who  religiously  retires  to  his  closet -once 
a  week  and  confesses  to  God,  with  no  calculation  of  forsaking, 
and  perhaps,  with  the  certain  calculations  that  he  will  violate 
God's  law  of  nature  before  another  day  shall  have  expired. 

Such  as  these  expect  to  get  to  heaven  by  faith  in  God's  mercy 
and  in  the  atoning  blood  of  our  Saviour,  and  not  by  obedience  to 
his  commands.  But  the  priest,  you  say,  confesses  in  public  to 
God,  acknowledges  himself  a  sinner,  and  pleads  for  God's  mercy 
for  himself  and  his  flock.  According  to  my  understanding  of  the 
term,  it  is  no  confession  at  all ;  for  he  tells  you  nothing  but  what 
God  and  the  flock  already  know.  He,  like  you,  confesses  that 
he  is  a  sinner,  and  might  have  added,  O,  Lord  !  I  expect  to 
remain  a  sinner,  entirely  forgetting  the  injunction,  "  Cleanse 
your  hands,  ye  sinners,  and  purify  your  hearts,  ye  double-minded." 
James  iv,  8,  and  the  unalterable  decree,  ''The  soul  that  sinnetli 
it  shall  die,  "  and  "  He  that  committeth  sin  is  of  the  devil."  1st. 
John  iii,  8.  And  so  it  goes,  sinners  flrst,  teaching  a  sinning 
people  and  encouraging  them  to  live  in  sin  by  telling  them  they 
cannot  help  it ;  thus  "The  blind  lead  the  blind,"  and  the  conse- 
quence is  they  both  "fall  into  the  ditch  together."  I  say  not 
these  things  out  of  ill  will  to  any  mortal,  nor  do  I  wish  to  hurt 
nor  oflend  any  soul,  but  to  encourage  you,  to  enlighten  you,  and 
to  so  strengthen  you  that  you  may  be  able  to  take  the  apostle's 
advice  and  find  your  way  out  of  sin  now,  in  this  world,  so  that 
it  may  be  said  to  you,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant  " 

—  not  well  done,  weak  and  sinning  servant,  hwi  faithful  servant 

—  "  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord.  "  "  If  we  say  we  have 
no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us ;  but  if 
we  confess  our  sins,  he  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins, 
and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness."  1  John  i,  8,  5K 
Again,  some  apparently  honest  minds  will  say  they  do  not  believe 
any  man  on  earth  has  power  to  forgive  sin.  Simple  creatures  ! 
They  do  not  know  this  is  "  rank  infidelity,"  and  equal  to  saying 
they  do  not  believe  Christ  has  any  Church  on  earth.  If  He  has 
not,  then  no  man  has  the  power ;  if  He  has,   the  power  still 


God  Indivisible.  11 

remains  in  his  Church.  It  follows  then  that  the  Church  that  has 
not  this  power  is  not  the  Church  of  Christ  at  all,  but  some 
spurious  concern,  gotten  up  by  hypocritical  or  ignorant  men. 
This  may  serve  you  as  a  clew  in  your  search  for  the  true  Church. 
You,  my  friends,  may  rest  assured  of  one  thing  —  that  is,  Christ's 
Church  is  not  governed  by  sinners^  led  by  sinners^  filled  by  sin- 
ners^ nor  worked  throughout  by  sinners.  This  kind  of  a  Church, 
one  would  think,  would  please  the  devil  a  little  too  well.  I  only 
use  this  term  Devil  in  condescension  to  the  general  sense. 

I  would  have  you  understand,  and  bear  it  in  mind,  that  when 
you  have  confessed  your  sins  in  God's  order,  and,  as  the  apostle 
says,  have  been  "  cleansed  from  all  unrighteousness ",  you  are 
then  righteous,  and  need  not  sin  any  more,  and  consequently 
not  be  a  sinner  any  more.  The  wise  man  said :  "  He  that 
covereth  his  sins  shall  not  prosper,  but  who  so  confessed  and 
forsaketh  them  shall  find  mercy. "  Prov.  xxviii,  13.  Cover 
from  whom  ?  We  cannot  cover  from  the  Supreme,  who 
"  knoweth  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart.  "  If  there  is 
any  meaning  in  the  text,  it  is  covering  from,  or  confessing  to  the 
order  of  God.  Then  it  is  he  who  for'saheth  them,  not  he  that 
goes  on  committing  them,  that  is  to  find  mercy.  Much  more 
might  be  quoted  from  the  Bible,  on  tliis  subject,  which  is  replete 
with  evidence  of  its  high  authenticity.  But,  besides  this,  there 
is  a  deep  philosophy  in  it,  aside  from  the  spiritual  cleansing  and 
peace  of  mind  occasioned  thereby.  For  how  could  the  physician 
certainly  determine  what  remedies  to  prescribe  for  internal 
maladies  without  a  statement  from  the  patient  of  his  internal 
condition  ?  If  a  person  comes  to  the  church  for  assistance,  how 
could  it  be  known  what  guards  were  necessary  to  be  thrown  around 
him  without  knowing  his  weak  points  ?  If  he  had  been  addicted 
to  the  intoxicating  bowl,  we  should  be  careful  not  to  expose  him 
to  the  temptation  of  liquor  :  and  just  the  same  with  regard  to 
other  habits  by  which  people  may  have  been  enslaved. 

I  have  now,  as  I  set  out  to  do,  endeavored  to  show  you  : 
First  —  That  you  who  profess  to  be  Christians  were  in  error  in  a 
very  essential  point  of  doctrine,  and  consequently  the  practice 
under  it  must  be  inefficacious  to  a  given  extent.  Secondly ^ — -I 
have  endeavored  to  show  you  from  scripture  and  reason  that  we 
were  right  in  the  first  and  most  essential  step  into  the  fold  of 
Christ ;  and  now.  Thirdly  —  I  would  wish  to  convince  you  that 
you  would   increase   your    happiness   by  taking   this  step  and 


12  Three  kinds  of  Happiness. 

becoming  peaceable  lambs  in  Christ's  Kingdom  ;  but  I  must  say- 
but  few  words  on  this  subject  at  present,  as  I  have  detained  you 
quite  long  enough,  but  must  recur  to  it  hereafter.  I  hope  you 
will  continue  to  give  me  your  attention,  as  I  shall,  from  time  to 
time,  endeavor  to  answer  the  many  objections  urged  against  us, 
both  by  friends  and  enemies.  The  one  most  often  repeated  is  : 
"  What  would  become  of  the  world  were  all  to  turn  Shakers  ? 
That  our  whole  system  of  religion  is  repugnant  to  scripture, 
reason,  and  the  common  sense  of  mankind,  and  therefore  cannot 
exist  but  a  short  time  at  farthest ;  "  and  secondly,  "the  very  fact 
that  God  made  woman  and  gave  her  to  man  to  be  a  help-meet 
for  him  shows  that  it  is  by  this  means  the  world  is  to  be  per- 
petuated. It  is  therefore  fighting  against  God  to  abrogate  the 
relation  which  he  instituted,  "  etc.  These,  with  many  others  of 
like  character,  will  be  answered  by  and  by,  if  you  will  continue 
to  give  me  audience;  and  any  objections  that  I  should  fail  to 
think  of  may  be  noted  by  you  and  handed  or  sent  to  me,  and 
they  shall  be  respectfully  considered,  as  truth,  and  truth  only  is 
what  we  want.  If  we  find  we  have  it  not,  it  will  be  to  our 
interest  to  be  corrected,  and  certainly  we  shall  be  in  duty  bound 
to  thank  any  of  you  for  its  unfoldment.  As  said  in  a  former 
discourse,  error  can  be  of  no  advantage  to  any  soul,  and,  seeing 
an  error,  we  shall  not  strive  to  uphold  it,  for 

"  Truth  crushed  to  earth  will  rise  again  ; 
The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers  ; 
While  error  wounded  writhes  in  pain, 
And  dies  amid  her  worshipers.  " 

It  is  sad,  yet  true,  that  the  minister  in  the  pulpit  generally 
dares  not  divulge  to  the  audience  all  the  truths  in  his  possession, 
because  they  would  be  unpopular.  He  'miistplease  his  audience^ 
and  hence  cannot  be  the  real  minister  of  truth.  His  bread  and 
meat  depend  upon  it,  and  this  seems  to  have  been  the  case  in 
years  long  past,  as  expressed  by  the  poet : 

"  Pulyiits  their  sacred  satire  learned  to  spare, 
And  vice  admired  to  find  a  flatterer  there." 

Happiness  is  of  three  kinds  —  spiritual,  intellectual,  and  sens- 
ual, or  animal.  The  first  is  found  only  on  the  Christ  plane,  and 
only  attainable  by  the  true  followers  of  Christ.  The  second  is 
found  by  the  philosopher,  the  learned,  the  astronomer,  mathema- 
tician, etc.  The  third  is  found  on  the  natural  plane.  The  second 
may  combine  either  witli  the  first  or  last,  but  the  three  cannot 


Thkee  kinds  of  Happiness,  13 

combine,  for  "  he  that  findeth  his  (worldly)  life  shall  lose  it  (the 
spiritual),  and  he  that  loseth  his  (worldly)  life  for  my  sake  shall 
find  it  (the  spiritual),  and  he  that  receiveth  you  reeeiveth  me ; 
and  he  that  receiveth  me  receiveth  him  that  sent  me.'"  Matt.,  x, 
39,  40.  This  clearly  shows  that  the  worldly  or  sensual  life  is 
incompatible  with  the  spiritual  life  of  Christ.  It  is  clear  that  the 
Saviour  could  not  mean  that  they  could  both  iind  and  lose  the 
same  life,  but  the  finding  and  enjoying  of  one  excluded  the 
other ;  so  let  the  miser  and  sensualist,  and  those  who  are  engrossed 
in  the  things  of  this  world,  beware,  that  whilst  they  are  watching 
and  shunning  the  "  Scylla "  of  what  they  are  pleased  to  term 
"  Shakerism,"  they  fall  not  into  "  Charybdis,"  the  deep,  dark,  and 
"  bottomless  pit,"  where  their  course  may  be  one  eternal  descent, 
and  thus  lose  their  souls  forever. 


GOD  IMMUTABLE. 


It  is  written  that  "  the  reproof  of  a  friend  is  better  than  the 
kiss  of  an  enemy."  If  any  one  should  feel  wounded  or  become 
offended  at  my  remarks,  let  the  rising  thought  be  assuaged  by  the 
reflection  that  it  is  a  friend  that  speaks,  as  most  certainly  I  have 
no  cause  to  be  any  thing  else  but  a  friend  to  every  one  of  you. 
It  is  again  written,  "  ye  adulterers  and  adultresses,  know  ye  not 
that  the  friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  mth  God  ?  Whoso- 
ever therefore  will  be  a  friend  of  the  world  is  the  enemy  of  God." 
James,  iv,  4.  And  again,  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave 
His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  belie veth  in  Him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  John,  iii,  16.  The  apparent 
conflict  here  of  God  loving  what  He  requires  us  to  hate  is  ideal, 
and  explained  by  the  apostle  ;  "  Love  not  the  world,  neither  the 
things  that  are  in  the  world.  If  any  love  the  world,  the  love  of 
the  Father  is  not  in  him ;  for  all  that  is  in  the  world,  the  lust  of 
the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life,  is  not  of  the 
Father,  but  is  of  the  world,  and  the  world  passeth  away  and  the 
lusts  thereof,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  forever." 
1st  John,  XV,  16,  17.  It  is  clear,  then,  that  those  who  choose 
these  worldly  elements,  and  live  in  them,  are  God's  enemies. 
This  is  a  good  criterion  to  judge  ourselves  by.  Do  any  of  us 
love  the  lust  of  the  flesh  ?  Do  any  of  us  love  the  pride  of  life  ? 
According  to  the  apostle,  all  whom  truth  compels  to  answer 
affirmatively  may  know  they  are  enemies  to  God ;  and  all  such 
cannot  forsake  the  world  and  turn  to  God  any  too  soon,  for  with- 
out Him  all  is  lost,  but  if  He  be  "  on  our  side  who  can  be  against 
us?" 

From  what  I  have  already  said,  in  respect  to  Deity,  it  would 
seem  superfluous  to  add  any  thing ;  yet  I  feel  compelled  to  saj^  a 
few  words  more.  I  am  well  aware  that  your  divines  (?)  when 
closely  pressed,  acknowledge  the  Unity  of  the  Supreme  Being ; 
but  for  want  of  clear  ideas,  and  a  consistent  application  of  their 
terms,  whenever  we  question  the  Supreme  Deity  of  the  Son,  the 


The  Trinity  Mystery.  15 

oscillation  commences ;  and  by  adroit  manoeuvring,  and  a  verj 
licentious  use  of  language  to  sustain  a  preconceiv^ed  notion,  they 
seem  to  lose  sight  of  what  they  have  conceded,  and  so  interpret 
words  as  to  make  you  believe  that  the  terms  luilty  and  trinity 
are  synonvms  —  that  at  least  there  was  a  harmonious  oneness  in 
them  —  their  chief  illustration  being  this  :  ''  Water  is  one  sub- 
stance, but  the  same  substance  may  be  either  snow  or  ice  without 
changing  the  substance,  there  being  no  change  except  in  the  con- 
dition." But  God's  immutability,  already  acknowledged,  denies 
you  even  this,  but  He  is  ever  the  same,  without  change.  The 
illustration  is,  therefore,  inapplicable.  If,  however,  we  admit 
that  the  office  of  water,  snow  and  ice  is  different,  the  substance 
is  the  same^  and  to  make  the  comparison  at  all  available  we 
could  only  say  :  God  was  at  one  time  pleased,  another  time 
angry,  and  another  time  indifferent.  We  could  neither  divide 
Him,  nor  make  three  beings  of  Him.  According  to  the  illustra- 
tion, God  must  be  all  the  time  God,  or  all  the  time  the  Son,  or 
all  the  time  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  never  at  any  time  all  three,  each 
with  a  different  office  to  perform  at  the  same  time  ;  hence  the 
comparison  fails  to  answer  the  purpose  intended.  Illustrations 
badly  chosen  always  serve  to  darken  rather  than  to  enlighten  the 
understanding. 

But  these  divine  reasoners,  whilst  they  declare  that  the  Son  is 
the  Father  still  hold  that  there  is  a  Father  aside  from  the  Son, 
because  they  are  unwilling  to  admit  that  the  universe  was  with- 
out an  Infinite  Being,  during  his  sojourn  on,  with  especial  atten- 
tion to  this  mundane  sphere.  So,  when  their  ideas  clash,  their 
reasonings  clash  also.     Who  can  gainsay  the  words  of  the  poet  : 

"  All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
Whose  body  Nature  is,  and  God  the  soul?  " 

Some  of  you  little  know  the  disastrous  consequences  that 
would  follow  a  denial  of  this.  When  this  is  denied  His  Omni- 
presence is  denied.  His  Omnipresence  being  denied.  His  Infinity 
is  denied  ;  and  this  being  denied,  makes  Him  a  circumscribed, 
limited.  Finite  Being.  Thence  follow  the  "  gross  conceptions  of 
corporeity,"  figure,  size,  shape,  etc.  And  how  should  He  get 
from  world  to  world  ?  A  universe  without  a  God,  only  as  it 
pleased  Him  to  visit  its  parts  !  This  is  Atheism  —  equal  to  say- 
ing there  is  no  God !     Nay,  my  friends,  if  there  is  any  part  of 


16  GuD  Immutable. 

space  where  He  is  not,  He  i?,  finite,  and  there  can  be  no  compari- 
son between  the  finite  and  the  infinite. 

"  Jove's  satellites  are  less  than  Jove." 

If  He  is  finite  in  his  existence,  lie  is  finite  in  all  his  attributes ; 
but  the  reverse  of  this  is  true.  There  is  no  atom  in  the  wide 
universe  without  the  presence  of  the  divine  energy.     He, 

"  Warms  ia  the  sun,  refreshes  in  the  breeze. 
Glows  in  the  stars,  and  blossoms  in  the  trees  — 
Lives  through  all  life,  extends  thro'  all  extent  • 
Spreads  undivided  and  operates  unspent." 

But  the  defenders  of  the  triple-God  doctrine  say  the  three 
are  combined  in  a  "  mysterious  yet  all  harmonious  union  ;  "  that 
this  is  a  matter  of  revelation,  out  of  the  reach  of  and  above 
the  cold  philosophy  of  this  world,  must  be  believed  or  the 
soul  be  damned !  while  if  terms  mean  any  thing,  we 
have  no  choice  in  the  matter.  No  rational  mind  can  believe  a 
statement  that  contradicts  itself.  But  there  is  another  difiiculty 
— difficulties  beset  us  on  every  hand.  If  it  is  mysterious,  how 
do  we  know  it  to  be  harmonious  ?  This  conclusion  is  clearly  hy- 
pothetical. It  is  impossible  for  any  man  to  really  believe  a  mys- 
tery, according  to  my  sense  of  definition  of  the  term.  Yet 
mystery  seems  to  be  the  great  whale  that  swallows  all  the 
modern  Jonahs.  A  mystery  is  something  hidden  from  the  human 
understanding  and  beyond  human  comprehension  ;  consequently 
something  of  which  the  sense  cannot  take  cognizance.  A  man, 
therefore,  cannot  believe  a  mystery.  Still  it  is  affirmed  that  we 
are  believing  mysteries  every  day.  I  admit  there  are  some  things 
which  persons  sometimes  carelessly  take  upon  trust,  without 
investigation ;  but  nothing  can  be  really  believed  but  what  the 
senses  can  take  cognizance  of.  If  the  geometrician  tells  you  that 
the  three  angles  of  a  plain  triangle  are  ecpial  to  two  right  ones, 
you  may  take  it  upon  trust,  as  your  senses  take  cognizance  of 
angles.  Still,  he  should  demonstrate  the  problem  before  demand- 
ing your  entire  credence. 

The  first  argument  in  the  mouth  of  a  man  who  asks  you  to 
believe  a  mystery  is  something  like  this  :  The  grass  grows ;  this 
is  a  mystery,  and  we  believe  it.  But  this,  as  well  as  all  of  the 
kind,  is  shallow  reasoning,  so  shallow  that  it  is  not  reasoning  at 
all.  That  the  grass  grows  is  palpable  to  the  senses,  but  how  it 
grows  we  know  not,  it  is  incomprehensible  ;  we,  therefore,  do  not 


Miracles.  17 

know  how  to  believe  how  it  grows,  we  cannot  believe  how  it 
grows,  because  this  is  a  mystery.  When  the  how  is  revealed  to  the 
understanding  the  mystery  ceases ;  we  then  shall  be  able  to  be- 
lieve how  it  grows,  and  not  before.  No  man,  therefore,  can 
believe  any  thing  entirely  hidden  from  the  senses  or  understand- 
ing. A  thing  thus  hidden  is  the  same  to  us  as  though  we  had 
not  the  senses  necessary  to  belief.  This,  with  the  rational  mind, 
will  answer  for  any  mysterious  proposition  that  may  be  given  you 
from  man,  relative  to  God,  or  the  Son  of  God,  including  all  the 
mysteries  of  animal  and  vegetable  life.  Tet  we  are  thrown  back 
to  the  bible,  and  told  that  it  is  revealed  there,  from  God  in 
heaven,  that  such  and  such  things  are  mysteries  not  to  be  com- 
prehended, but  believed  on  pain  of  hell's  torments  if  we  do  not, 
for  "  great  is  the  mystery  of  Godliness."  Godliness  is  mysterious 
only  to  the  sinner ;  it  is  not  at  all  mysterious  to  the  men  and 
women  whose  lives  are  lives  of  godliness.  God  is  no  mystery  to 
those  to  whom  He  is  revealed.  Paul,  when  he  arrived  at  Athens, 
said  :  "  I  perceive  that  in  all  things  ye  are  too  superstitious  ;  for 
as  I  passed  by  and  beheld  your  devotions,  I  found  an  altar,  with 
this  inscription  :  To  the  Unknown  God.  Whom,  therefore, 
ye  ignorantly  worship.  Him  declare  I  unto  you."  Acts  xvii,  23. 
God  to  him  was  no  mystery,  else  he  could  not  have  declared 
Him. 

Some  sinning  priests,  going  their  rounds  through  the  country, 
are  making  mysteries  of  many  things — especially  things  sacred — 
which  they  urge  you  to  believe,  on  pain  of  damnation.  If  they 
succeed  in  satisfying  you,  they  well  know  the  good  matron  of  the 
house  will  have  the  fatted  pullet  ready  by  the  time  they  come 
round  again.  This  is  understandable.  The  only  mystery  about 
this  is,  that  so  many  are  "  taken  in."  I  would  here  give  this 
little  piece  of  advice :  If  any  man  should  come  to  your  domicile 
to  instruct  you  and  your  family  how  to  be  saved,  and  is  not  saved 
himself,  you  should  quote  to  him  the  pungent  proverb,  "  Phy- 
sician, heal  thyself."  It  may  be  confessing  too  many  of  their 
sins  for  them,  but  such  persons  generally  have  quite  as  much 
interest  in  the  pullet  as  they  have  in  your  salvation.  Miracles 
are  next  urged  upon  you,  especially  the  great,  grand  miracle  of 
miracles,  "revealed  in  God's  word,"  that  the  Infinite  Jehovah, 
the  Creator  of  worlds,  beyond  thought,  focalized  himself  in  a 
woman,  became  a  baby,  a  boy,  a  man,  then  permitted  His  fellow 
man  to  kill  Him  that  He  might  reconcile  it  with  His  sense  of  justice 
3 


18  God  Immutable. 

to  admit  the  sinner  into  Heaven,  especially  all  who  were  simple 
enough  to  believe  the  story !  But  this  story  is  not  as  palpable  to 
the  senses  as  that  grass  grows.  It  so  happens  that  this  so-called 
word  of  God  reveals  precisely  the  negative  of  all  this.  It  is  a 
pei'fect  iieutralizer.  Then,  which  shall  we  believe — tlie  reason- 
able or  unreasonable  ?  This  Supreme  (?)  that  walked  the  earth 
says  lie  was  the  Son  of  Man.  Is  lie  to  be  believed  ?  He  says 
also  He  has  a  Heavenly  Father.  Is  this  true  ?  Now,  that  He 
can  be  the  supreme  God  and  son  of  the  supreme  God,  the  father 
of  himself,  and  the  father  of  the  father,  and  father  of  the  son, 
and  the  son  of  the  son,  and  son  of  himself,  is  not  plain  to  the 
senses  ;  it  not  only  "  admits  of  a  reasonable  doubt,"  but  is  entirely 
beyond  the  power  of  belief  to  any  educated  and  unbiased  mind. 
The  proposition  utterly  annihilates  itself  before  it  is  lialf  told. 
All  this  is  the  result  of  a  wrong  education — a  biased  mind  and 
morbid  intellect,  and  can  work  nothing  but  injury  to  the  human 
race. 

Having  taken  the  Son  from  the  triple  God,  it  is  necessary  that 
I  should  now  j)]ace  Him  right  in  your  minds,  the  son — the  "  Man, 
Christ  Jesus."  "  For  there  is  one  God,  and  one  mediator  betwixt 
God  and  man,  the  man  Christ  Jesus"  —1st  Tim.  ii,  5.  No  text 
in  the  Scriptures  shows  the  truth,  and  the  distinction  between 
God  and  Christ,  more  clearly  than  this :  First,  one  God ; 
secondly,  one  Mediator  betwixt  God  and  man ;  and  thirdly,  that 
'man  is  this  mediator — not  that  the  Supreme  is  the  mediator,  but 
the  man,  Christ  Jesus.  How  very  dull  must  be  the  perception  of 
the  person  who  cannot  see  this  truth ! 

The  subject  of  the  Christ  is  not  an  intricate  one  when  divested 
of  the  far-fetched  and  extraneous  verbiage  with  which  it  seems 
to  be  surrounded  and  intertwined.  It  only  needs  to  have  the 
smoke  and  fog  that  have  been  accumulating  around  it  dispelled, 
and  the  cobwebs  brushed  away,  to  enable  the  most  common  capac- 
ity to  comprehend  it.  I  have  no  sympathy  with,  nor  affinity  for, 
a  mysterious  godliness,  nor  a  theology,  nor  philosophy,  that  no 
two  can  agree  upon  nor  comprehend ;  and  in  order  that  I  may 
proceed  understandingly  I  will  begin  at  the  beginning,  and  give 
you  the  signification  of  the  term  Christ,  and  its  origin  and  use. 
If  I  am  right  it  is  important  that  you  should  know  it.  If  wrong, 
it  is  also  necessary  that  you  should  know  how  much  I  am  wrong, 
and  wherein,  I  shall  quote  authority  that  you  will  acknowledge, 
taking  pains  to  keep  clear  and  distinct  ideas  before  you. 


Who  is  Christ?  19 

Webster  defines  the  term  Christ  thus :  "  Greek,  Christos 
Anointed,  from  chrio,  to  anoint.  The  Anointed,  an  appellation 
given  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  synonymous  with  the 
Hebrew  Messiah.  It  was  the  custom  of  antiquity  to  consecrate 
persons  to  the  sacerdotal  and  regal  offices  by  anointing  with  oil." 
Thus  we  see  the  verb  chrio^  from  which  the  noun  Christos  is 
derived,  signifies  to  anoint,  the  act  of  anointing.  This  act,  there- 
fore, cannot  be  called  Christos ;  neither  can  the  unction — Hebrew 
Semen  Meshe,  or  Greek  Chrisma,  anointing — be  called  Christ. 
None  but  the  person  anointed,  according  to  Webster,  can  be 
called  or  ever  was  called  Christ  in  past  history.  Alexander 
Cruden  agrees  with  Webster,  and  says  the  Evangelists  took  care 
to  put  the  people  in  mind  of  the  prophecies  concerning  him  to 
prove  thereby  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ  whom  they  expected. 
Buck,  in  his  Theological  Dictionary,  agrees  with  both  Webster 
and  Cruden.  He  says :  "  He  is  called  Christ  because  he  is 
anointed  ;  "  for  this  reason,  not  on  account  of  a  miraculous  birth, 
but  because  he  was  anointed.  The  learned  Richard  Watson 
agrees  also  with  what  has  been  said,  that  the  term  "  as  used  singly 
by  way  of  autonomasis  to  denote  a  person  sent  from  God  as 
anointed  prophet,  priest,  or  King."  "  Christ,"  says  Lactantious, 
'*  is  no  proper  personal  name,  but  one  denoting  power  ;  for  the 
Jews  used  to  give  this  appellation  to  their  Kings,  calling  them 
Christ  or  anointed  by  reason  of  their  sacred  unction."  But  he 
adds :  "  The  names  of  Messiah  and  Christ  were  originally 
derived  from  the  ceremony  of  anointing,  by  which  the  Kings  and 
priests  of  God's  people  were  consecrated  and  admitted  to  the 
exercise  of  their  functions ;  for  all  these  functions  were  counted 
holy  among  the  Israelites.  But  the  most  eminent  application  of 
the  word  is  to  that  illustrious  personage,  typified  and  predicted 
from  the  beginning,  who  is  described  under  the  character  of  God's 
anointed,  the  Messiah,  or  Christ."  One  mistake  our  translators 
have  made  is  by  too  seldom  prefexing  the  article  the  before 
Christ.  The  word  Christ  was  at  first  as  much  an  appellative  as 
the  word  Baptist,  and  one  was  as  regularly  accompanied  with  the 
article  as  the  other ;  yet  our  translators  who  would  always  say, 
"  the  Baptist^''  have,  it  would  seem,  studiously  avoided  saying 
"  the  Christ."  The  article  in  such  expressions  as  occur  in  Acts, 
xvii,  3 — xviii,  5,  25,  adds  considerable  light  to  them,  and  yet  no 
more  than  the  words  of  the  historian  manifestly  convey  to  every 
reader  who  understands  his  language.     It  should  therefore  be,  as 


20  God  Immutable. 

Paul  testified  to  the  Jews :  ''  Jesus  was  the  Christ,"  or  the 
Messiah,  etc.  Watson  further  adds  (p.  522} :  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
was  tlie  Christ,"  or  Messiah  promised.  That  He  professed  him- 
self to  be  that  Messiah  to  whom  all  the  prophets  gave  witness, 
and  who  was  in  fact,  at  the  time  of  His  appearance,  expected  by 
the  Jews,  and  that  He  was  received  under  that  character  by  His 
disciples  and  all  Christians  ever  since,  is  certain.  All  lexicog- 
raphers agree  with  this  ;  in  fact  there  is  no  standard  work  extant 
but  what  acknowledges  that  the  term  Christ  signifies  the  anointed 
person,  and  is  confined  to  that  signification  and  use.  From  all 
that  I  have  said  and  the  evidence  adduced  you  cannot  fail  to  per- 
ceive that  the  term  Christ  is  but  an  appellative  noun — an  oflicial 
title  of  the  man  Jesus,  the  same  as  Baptist  was  of  the  man  John, 
or  the  same  as  "  Jones,  the  Sheriff,"  or  "  Smith,  the  Auditor." 
This  is  all  plain ;  easily  fathomed  by  the  common  capacity. 
What  some  would  veil  in  mystery,  is  clear  as  day  when  plainly 
stated.  It  will  be  perceived,  also,  that  to  come  from  God  is 
nothing  more  than  to  be  commissioned  or  appointed  by  Him. 
This  coming  has  no  reference  to  altitude,  longitude,  nor  latitude, 
as  many  are  made  to  believe.  I  know  this  kind  of  discourse  is 
j)rosy  and  irksome  to  many,  but  I  could  not,  if  I  would 

"  Round  tlie  period  and  the  pause. 
And  form  the  rhetoric,  clause  on  clause," 

so  as  to  be  ver}^  attractive ;  but  to  those  who  are  in  quest  of 
simple  truth,  I  propose  to  be  of  no  disadvantage.  I  beg  you  not 
to  be  alarmed,  fearing  that  I  may  derogate  from  the  character  of 
Christ ;  for  it  adds  a  thousand  fold  more  lustre  to  His  character 
to  know  that,  notwithstanding  "  He  was  made  in  all  respects  like 
unto  His  brethren  " —  Heb.  ii,  IT  —  "  tempted  in  all  points  as  we 
are,"  He  yet  gained  the  victory,  that  it  would  be  to  think  He  was 
not  made  in  all  respects  like  unto  us,  but  overcame  by  virtue  of 
a  higher  creation.  So,  my  friends,  cheer  up,  you  have  an  ex- 
ample. "He  left  us  an  example  that  we  should  follow  His 
steps  "  —  1  Peter,  ii,  21  — not  the  steps  of  the  supreme  God,  but 
those  of  a  good  man,  godly  man,  or  God-man,  if  you  please,  and 
if  you  have  the  moral  courage  to  "  come  out  from  the  world," 
and  undertake  the  good  work,  you  will  find  that  salvation  is  not 
unsusceptible  of  attainment  in  this  life.  Is  not  this  good  news  ? 
Come,  then,  to  Christ ;  He  will  receive  you,  if  you  will  confess 
and  forsake  all  sin.     "  For  in  a  little  wrath,  I  hid  my  face  from 


God  Immutable.  21 

thee  for  a  moment ;  but  with  everlasting  kindness  will  I  have 
mercy  on  thee,  saitli  the  Lord,  the  Redeemer,"  Isa.  liv,  7,  8. 
Then,  oh  !  my  friends, "  seek  yo  the  Lord  while  He  may  be  found  ; 
call  ye  upon  Him  while  He  is  near."  "  Let  the  wicked  forsake 
his  way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts,  and  let  him  re- 
turn unto  the  Lord,  who  Avill  have  mercy  upon  him,  and  to  our 
God,  for  He  will  abundantly  pardon" 


RETROSPECTION. 


Before  proceeding  with  this  discourse  I  propose  to  take  a  very 
short  retrospect  of  the  essential  points  thus  far  made.  It  is  not  a 
difficult  matter  to  forget  acknowledged  truths  when  new  ideas  are 
brought  before  the  mind,  and  side  issues  introduce  themselves ;  it 
is  therefore  necessary  to  proceed  cautiously,  with  a  kind  of  retro- 
action, to  insure  harmony  of  thought,  so  that  the  past,  the  pres- 
ent and  the  future  may  agree.  I  have  declared  to  you  the  har- 
mony  of  all  truth.  I  have  endeavored  to  impress  upon  your 
minds  the  necessity  of  having  distinct  and  clear  ideas,  and  of 
using  well-defined  terras,  in  order  to  preserve  consistency  of 
thought  and  speech ;  and  also  of  the  necessity  of  divesting  your 
minds  of  all  bias,  prepossession  or  prejudice,  and  to  look  at  things 
as  they  are.  Locke  says,  "  No  man  is  suitable  to  investigate  for 
truth  who  has  an  object  in  his  mind  which  he  loishes  to  find  true. ^^ 
Such  person  is  apt  to  see  truth  only  on  one  side.  But  truth  alone 
sliould  be  the  object,  regardless  of  our  desires.  This  I  think  is 
my  condition.  I  am  not  before  you  to  defend  any  dogma,  par- 
ticular tlieory,  nor  is7n^  not  even  what  you  are  pleased  to  term 
Shakerism,  but  to  aid  in  removing  error,  and  to  unfold  to  you 
the  simple  truth  as  I  perceive  it.  Truth  is  usually  simple,  while 
error  is  complex. 

"  For  modes  of  faith  let  graceless  zealots  fight  ; 
His  can't  be  wrong,  whose  life  is  in  the  right." 

I  have  endeavored  to  impress  upon  your  minds  a  truth,  which 
we  are  apt  to  forget,  respecting  our  Creator,  and  that  is  that  no 
atom  of  the  boundless  univei'se  is  or  ever  was  without  the  eternal 
presence;  that  "  the  hairs  of  our  head  are  all  numbered  ;  "  that  this 
has  ever  been  the  case,  before  as  well  as  since  the  advent  of  our 
Saviour ;  that  all  is  right,  save  only  man  and  what  man  has  done, 
and  especially  have  I  endeavored  to  impress  you  with  the  great 
and  important  truth  that  the  ever  present  God  commissioned  the 
man,  Christ  Jesus,  to  represent  Him  and  to  make  known  His  will  to 


Retrospection.  23 

the  race,  and  made  him  "judge  of  the  quick  and  the  dead  ;  "  and 
that  the  power  thus  delegated  to  Him  He  delegated  to  his  success- 
ors, and  said  :  "  They  shall  do  greater  works  than  I,  because  I 
go  to  my  Father."  John  xvi,  12,  And  at  the  bar  of  this  tribunal, 
the  head  of  Christ's  church,  shall  all  souls  be  tried  in  time  or 
eternity,  and  the  first  step  any  soul  can  take  to  bring  him  or  her- 
self into  harmony  with  the  Creator,  whose  laws  have  been  vio- 
lated, was  by  auricular  confession  of  sin  to  the  order  of  his  ap- 
pointing, and  thenceforward  leadiug  a  godly  life.  Thus,  and  thus 
only  hath  a  merciful  God  opened  the  way  for  our  return  to  Him. 
But  how  discouraging  it  is  when  the  most  irrefragable  proof  is 
set  before  the  mind,  that  many  will  not  heed  it,  and  would  rather 
put  their  trust  in  something  unproved  and  unprovable  than  to 
abide  by  known  and  acknowledged  truth.  A  lawyer  of  some 
note,  lately  said  that,  while  he  could  not  dispute  the  truth  of  the 
indivisibility  of  the  Infinite,  yet  he  believed  in  the  Infinite 
Three !  because,  forsooth,  it  was  Bible  doctrine,  which  assertion  I 
deny.  It  seemed  impossible  for  him  to  fix  his  eyes  or  sense  on 
any  thing  else  but  '^  judge,  two  attorneys  and  a  criminal ;  believ- 
ing that  there  is  such  a  court  somewhere  above  the  clouds,  to  at- 
tend to  his  case  when  he  gets  ready  for  trial;  if  he  expects  to  get 
to  heaven,  he  must  of  course  think  the  practice  there  is  somewhat 
similar  to  what  he  is  accustomed  to  here.  A  large  enough  fee, 
adroit  pleading,  etc.,  will  somehow  clear  the  culprit,  and  thus,  in 
connnon  parlance,  "  cheat  the  devil  out  of  his  dues."  A  certain 
preacher  also  said  :  "  deprive  me  of  the  imputed  rigliteousness  of 
Christ,  and  I  am  damned,  sure."  JSTot  so,  friend.  Your  damna- 
tion will  be  in  the  precise  ratio  of  your  willful  violation  of  God's 
laws,  and  your  justification  in  exact  proportion  to  your  obedience 
to  them.  Be  not  fearful,  for  God  is  jnst,  and  will  do  as  he  has 
promised  —  "  reward  you  according  as  your  works  shall  be."  It 
matters  little  M'liat  people  profess  to  believe.  The  trutli  is,  no 
man  can  believe  the  afiirmative  and  negative  of  a  proposition. 
When  he  thus  affirms,  it  is  evident  that  he  is  either  dishonest 
or  remarkably  weak.  Such  a  person  might  receive  instruction 
from  some  who  are  called  pagan.  In  his  Phseclo  of  the  soul, 
Plato  says :  "  It  appears  to  me  that,  to  know  them  clearly  in  the 
present  life,  is  either  impossible  or  very  difficult.  On  the  other 
hand,  not  to  test  what  has  been  said  of  them  in  every  possible 
way  —  not  to  investigate  the  whole  matter,  and  exhaust  upon  it 
every  effort  is  the  part  of  a  very  weak  man.     For  we  ought  in 


24  Retrospection. 

respect  of  these  things  either  to  learn  from  others  how  tliej  stand 
or  to  discover  them  for  om'selves,  or  if  both  of  these  are  impossible 
then,  taking  the  best  of  human  reasonings,  that  which  appears 
the  best  supported,  and  embark  on  that,  as  one  who  risks  himself 
on  a  raft  to  sail  through  life." 

Such  a  man,  let  him  be  either  Pagan,  Mohametan  or  Christian, 
is  head  and  shoulders  above  any  one  who  professes  to  believe  the 
contrary  sides  of  a  proposition,  such  as  the  existence  of  an  infinite 
indivisible  one,  and  of  the  same  being  as  an  infinite  divisihle  three! 
And  moreover,  I  feel  quite  sure  that  an  honest,  truthful  pagan  is 
much  nearer  the  Kingdom  of  God,  than  a  dishonest,  ecpiivocating, 
falsifj'ing  professor  of  Christianity.  How  many  there  are  \vho  ac- 
cept the  mere  "  letter  of  the  Bible  that  killeth,  and  reject  the 
spirit  (of  truth)  that  giveth  life."  2  Cor.  iii,  6.  I  have  always, 
not  only  been  taught  a  due  veneration  for  the  Bible,  but  also  the 
greatest  veneration  for  truth,  as  I  became  able  to  perceive  it. 
Nothing  either  in  or  out  of  the  Bible  can  be  believed  to  be  true 
unless  its  truth  can  be  perceived,  and  a  truth  unperceived  can  be 
binding  on  no  one.  The  Bible  makes  no  such  declaration  as  that 
of  a  three-fold  God,  nor  of  a  first,  second  and  third  person  in  one 
God.  Such  terms  as  trinity,  triune  God,  etc.,  are  not  to  be  found  in 
the  good  book.  They  have  been  coined  in  the  jumble  of  thoughts 
of  inconsistent  sectarians,  as  a  foundation  on  which  to  build  or  to 
bolster  up  some  particular  creed.  I  have  further  endeavored  to 
show,  25roducing  evidence  that  could  not  be  disputed,  that  Christ 
signified  anointed  y  that  the  term  cannot  by  any  rational  con- 
struction be  ajjplied  to  any  human  being,  nor  angel,  without  such 
being  anointed  or  appointed  to  consummate  some  special  work, 
or  perform  some  new  mission  for  God  — that  is  to  say  Christ  is  a 
God-apj>ointed  agent.  The  term  means  this,  nothing  more, 
nothing  less. 

I  have  further  striven  to  impress  the  trutli,  that  the  Bible 
speaks  of  three  worlds  or  creations.  The  Biblicist  will  acknowl- 
edge that  Moses  and  those  after  him,  till  Christ,  spoke  of  two 
worlds,  viz.  :  First,  the  visible  creation,  heavens  and  earth,  moon, 
stars,  etc. ;  and  secondly,  the  "  old  heavens  and  earth  "  that  were 
to  "  pass  away  with  a  great  noise,"  at  the  ushering  in  of  the  "  new 
heavens  and  earth,"  some  time,  called  world  or  worlds  /  and  that 
the  Evangelists  wrote  only  of  the  "  New  Heavens  and  Earth." 
Should  we  forget  these  truths,  Alps  on  Alps  arise  before  us;  but 
keeping  them  in  view,  all  obstacles  vanish,  and  our  way  is  plain. 


The  Word  of  God.  25 

With  some,  it  matters  not  what  amount  of  evidence  is  brought 
forward,  if  it  does  not  accord  with  their  understanding  of  certain 
texts  of  scripture,  it  is  all  coolljset  aside,  and  the  Bible  text  relied 
on.  Hence,  it  becomes  my  next  duty  to  examine  some  of  the 
principal  texts  supposed  and  believed  to  declare  the  existence  of 
Christ,  in  and  with  the  Creator  before  the  formation  of  man,  or 
even  the  creation  of  the  visible  universe.  It  will  at  once  be  seen, 
that,  after  admitting  the  authority  I  have  introduced  as  true  and 
reliable,  we  cannot  consistently  admit  the  pre-existent  theory.  If 
we  admit  the  latter,  the  former  must  be  rejected. 

The  text  usually  first  introduced  on  the  side  of  the  pre-existent 
theory  is  found  in  John's  gospel,  1st  and  14th  verses,  as  follows  : 
"  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God, 
and  the  Word  was  God  ; "  *  *  *  "  And  the  Word  became 
flesh  and  dwelt  amongst  us."  The  first  thing  to  be  considered  in 
the  text  is  the  term  beginning.  What  beginning  ?  According 
to  what  we  have  said,  it  must  be  the  beginning  of  God's  new  cre- 
ation. Christ  was  there.  The  whole,  however,  is  metaphorical ; 
but  metaphors  have  need  to  be  understood.  This  metaphor, 
then,  consists  in  calling  God's  word,  or  the  medium  through  and 
by  whom  the  M'ord  was  conveyed,  God  Himself.  When  I  say  the 
word  is  God,  I  mean  it  conveys  His  will  and  mind  to  me,  which  if  I 
obey  then,  I  obey  God  ;  if  I  disobey,  I  disobey  God  ;  and  in  this 
sense,  is  the  same  as  God.  The  word  became  Jesus  Christ  in  the 
same  way  and  by  the  same  rule  that  it  became  God.  He  received 
the  word,  mind,  or  will  of  God ;  that  mind  or  will  became  His 
mind  and  will ;  His  mind  and  will  was  then  Himself.  Then  it 
was  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  flesh  and  blood,  that  "  dwelt  amongst 
us."  To  obey  that  man,  therefore,  was  to  obey  God.  Other 
metaphors  exemplify  this.  We  say  we  read  Moses  when  we  read 
his  laws  ;  we  preach  Christ,  when  we  preach  His  doctrine.  The 
apostle  fully  sustains  the  view  here  taken  with  respect  to  the  be- 
ginning. In  his  flrst  epistle  he  says :  "  That  which  was  from  the 
beginning,  which  we  heard,  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes, 
and  our  hands  have  handled."  It  is  clear  that  his  hands  had  not 
liandled  any  thing  in  the  beginning  of  the  old  creation ;  but  with 
the  new  he  had  been  conversant  from  the  very  start.  This  same 
John  records  the  words  of  Jesus :  "  And  ye  also  shall  bear 
witness,  because  ye  have  been  with  me  from  the  beginning." 
That  is,  the  beginning  of  the  new  creation.  This  is  proof  posi- 
tive of  the  truth  of  the  exegesis  here  given  —  unless  both  Jesus 


26  Retkospection. 

and  His  apostles  all  pre-existed  with  God,  which  none  are  simple 
enough  to  affirm.  But  let  us  look  at  it  as  explained  and  held  by 
the  blind  guides  of  this  world.  In  the  beginning  was  God,  and  God 
was  with  God,  and  God  was  God,  and  God  became  flesh ;  and  God 
says  "  all  flesh  is  as  grass."  Then  God  became  as  grass ;  and  what 
is  grass  ?  I  hope  my  friends  will  take  a  common-sense  view  of  the 
subject  and  not  allow  themselves  to  be  led  away  from  the  truth, 
"  which  alone  can  make  you  free."  I  know  how  difficult  it  will  be  to 
yield  long-cherished  opinions,  even  when  their  falsity  and  absurd- 
ity are  shown ;  and  more  especially  will  it  be  hard  for  learned 
divines  to  acknowledge  light  from  a  quarter  so  obscure,  and  es- 
teemed so  ignorant,  as  we  are  ;  but  error  has  nearly  had  its  day, 
and  it  is  a  happy  thought  that  truth  will  finally  triumph.  Sec- 
ondly :  "  He  (Jesus  Clirist)  was  the  true  light  that  lighteth 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  He  was  in  the  world 
and  the  world  was  made  by  Him  and  the  world  knew  Him  not." 
John  i,  10.  Notwithstanding  Jesus  was  "  the  true  light,"  it 
must  be  evident  to  even  the  most  superficial  mind  that  this  true 
light  did  Qiot,  does  not  enlighten  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 
old,  or  natural  world.  This  being  the  case,  which  none  will  dis- 
pute, it  follows  that  some  other  world  was  meant.  It  must  have 
been  the  new  world  which  he  made,  whose  inhabitants  were  en- 
lightened by  this  "  true  light."  This  relieves  the  text  from  mys- 
tery, and  every  feature  of  pre-existence  is  removed.  It  is  ad- 
mitted that  the  new  world  was  made  by  Him,  but  not  the  old; 
and  although  those  who  came  into  the  new  world  were  enlight- 
ened by  Him,  yet  it  is  evident  they  knew  Him  not  —  that  is,  they 
did  not  fully  comprehend  His  mission  and  His  doctrine  — for  He 
said :  "  Have  I  been  so  long  with  you,  Peter,  and  you  have  not 
known  me  ? "  Thirdly :  "  God,  in  these  last  days^  hath  spoke 
unto  us  by  his  Son,  w^hom  He  hath  appointed  heir  of  all  things  : 
by  whom  also  He  made  the  (new)  worlds."  Heb.  i,  2.  Fourthly ; 
Christ  Jesus  "  who  is  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  the  first- 
born of  every  creature.  For  by  Him  are  all  things  created  that 
are  in  heaven,  and  that  are  in  earth,  visible  and  invisible,  whether 
they  be  thrones,  or  dominions,  or  principalities,  or  powers  ;  all 
things  were  created  by  Him  and  for  Him  ;  and  He  is  before  all 
things,  and  by  Him  all  things  consist,  and  He  (Jesus  Christ)  is  the 
head  of  the  body,  the  church  ;  who  is  the  beginning  (of  the  new 
creation  and  church),  the  first  born  fi-om  the  dead."  Col.  xv,  16, 
17,  IS.     I  quote  these  texts  entire,  because  they  are  supposed  by 


Head  of  the  Church.  27 

divines  to  be  proof  positive  not  only  of  the  pre-existence  of 
Christ,  but  that  Christ  loas  God  Himself ,  but,  when  fairly  con- 
sidered, they  fail  to  do  either.  They  fail  in  the  former,  because 
reference  is  had  to  the  new,  not  the  old  world ;  and  fail  in  the 
latter  because  Christ,  the  head  of  the  church,  was  the  image  of  an- 
other. It  would  hardly  do  to  say  He  was  the  image  of  himself ! 
It  is  true  that  "  by  Him  were  all  things  created  that  are  in  the 
(new)  heavens,  and  that  are  in  the  (new)  earth ;  and  all  things 
therein  were  created  by  Him  and  for  Him."  But  this  could  not 
be  truly  said  of  Him  in  relation  to  the  old  heavens  and  earth  that 
were  to  pass  away,  which  existed  before  Christ,  who  is  called  the 
second  Adam,  nor  of  the  visible  universe,  which  existed  before 
the  Jlrst  Adam  was  created.  And  he  (Christ),  the  text  says,  is 
before  all  things  (in  excellence),  which  is  true.  Should  we  give 
the  text  any  other  construction  it  would  clash  with  what  the  good 
apostle  elsewhere  affirms  of  the  Son  of  God.  He  says  :  "  Concern- 
ing His  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  which  was  made  of  the  seed 
of  David  according  to  the  flesh  (and  that  is  the  way  we  were  all 
made),  and  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  according 
to  the  spirit  of  holiness,  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead."  Rom. 
i,3,4. 

According  to  the  general  construction  given  by  the  sectarian 
world  to  the  first  quoted  text,  one  would  be  led  to  conclude  that 
the  apostle  was  not  speaking  of  the  same  Son  of  God  in  the 
latter  text,  and,  with  thei?'  exegesis,  reconciliation  and  agreement 
between  them  are  impossible.  But  to  proceed  with  Collosians, 
the  18th  verse.  It  will  be  evident  that  the  first-born  of  the  new 
creation  is  meant.  He  was  called  the  first-born  of  the  whole 
creation,  because  He  was  the  "  first-begotten  from  the  dead ; " 
consequently  the  "  first-born  of  ev^ery  creature  "  from  the  dead. 
The  text  does  not  say  He  was  before  all  things  ;  but  He  is  before — 
stands  before,  or  is  foremost,  in  the  new  creation  ;  and  "  by  Him 
all  things  (appertaining  thereto)  consist."  This  is  no  forced  con- 
struction, and  leaves  the  apostle  in  harmony  with  himself  and  in 
harmony  with  truth,  and  divests  the  reading  of  all  obscurity  and 
mystery,  "  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear  let  him  hear ;  "  for  in  all 
I  say,  I  hope  to  be  so  plain  that  the  most  common  capacity  can 
understand  and  comprehend  me.  We  claim  to  be  denizens  of 
this  new  world  made  by  Christ  — "  the  new  heavens  and  new 
earth  which  He  created,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness,"  where 
all  "  old  things  pass  away,  and  all  things  become  new,  and  all 


28  Retrospection. 

things  of  God."  This  is  the  place  and  this  is  the  feast  to  which 
we  all  are  invited.  Who  would  not  have  "  old  things  pass 
away  "  "  and  all  things  become  new  ?  "  Who  is  there  that  would 
not  this  day,  before  God,  give  all  his  worldly  possessions  to  have 
his  past  sins,  in  the  acts  of  his  life,  wiped  out,  and  be  restored  to 
the  innocence  of  a  child  ?  I  liear  a  response  from  the  deep 
chambers  of  the  heart,  saying :  "  I  would,  I  would,"  Then  let 
me  assure  all,  even  the  chiefest  of  sinners,  that  a  compliance  with 
God's  requirement  in  His  Order  will  bring  to  you  this  happy 
result. 

"  O  ye  Corinthians,  our  mouth  is  open  unto  you,  our  heart  is 
enlarged.  What  fellowship  hath  righteousness  with  unrighteous- 
ness ?  What  communion  hath  light  with  darkness  ?  What  con- 
cord hath  Christ  with  Belial  ?  What  agreement  hath  the  temple 
of  God  with  idols  ?  For  ye  are  the  temple  of  the  living  God ; 
as  God  hath  said :  I  will  dwell  in  them  and  walk  in  them,  and  I 
Avill  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people.  Wherefore 
come  yet  out  from  among  them ;  be  ye  separate  and  touch  not 
the  unclean  thing,  and  I  will  receive  you,  and  I  will  be  a  Father 
unto  you,  and  ye  shall  be  my  sons  and  daughters,  saith  the  Lord 
Almighty." 


TRUE  HAPPINESS. 


Before  people  will  forsake  the  world  and  come  to  Christ,  they 
will  have  to  feel  a  strong  assurance  that  by  so  doing  they  will  be 
rendered  more  happy  here  and  hereafter.  Happiness  is  of  three 
kinds,  viz.  :  celestial  or  spiritual ;  intellectual ;  and  sensual,  or 
animal ;  and  the  latter  is  unworthy  the  name,  yet  the  multitude 
seek  it  and  are  thereby  ruined.  "  He  only  can  be  esteemed  really 
happy  who  enjoys  peace  of  mind  in  the  favor  of  God ; "  and 
this  can  only  be  attained  through  Jesus  Christ,  by  obeying  His 
teaching,  and  walking  as  He  walked.  The  second  is  attainable  by 
the  good  and  the  bad,  according  to  their  capacity  and  application. 
The  third  is  enjoyed  by  animals,  and  by  animal,  sensual  man. 
"  Every  gratification,"  says  Dr.  Beattie,  "  of  which  human  nature 
is  capable,  may  be  comprehended  under  the  one  or  the  other  of 
these  three  classes,  viz. :  The  pleasures  of  the  outward  sense,  the 
pleasures  of  imagination  and  intellect,  and  the  pleasures  that 
result  from  the  right  exercise  of  our  moral  powers.  The  delights 
that  arise  from  the  latter  source,  and  from  the  approbation  of 
conscience,  are,  of  all  gratification,  the  most  dignified.  The 
more  a  man  attaches  himself  to  them  the  more  respectable  he 
becomes ;  and  it  is  not  possible  for  him  to  carry  such  attachment 
to  excess.     With  disgust  or  with  pain,  they  are  never  attended. 

*  *  To  virtue,  therefore,  which  is  the  right  exercise  of  our 
moral  powers,  the  character  of  chief  good  does  belong,  which 
will  appear  still  more  evident,  when  we  consider  that  the  hope 
of  future  felicity  is  the  chief  consolation  of  the  present  life,  and 
that  the  virtuous  alone  can  reasonably  entertain  that  hope.  As 
on  the  other  hand,  vice,  in  the  most  prosperous  condition,  is  sub- 
ject to  the  pangs  of  a  guilty  conscience  and  to  the  dreadful 
anticipation  of  future  punishment,  which  are  sufficient  to  destroy 
all  earthly  happiness." 

This  corroborates  what  I  have  said,  and,  coming,  as  it  does, 
from  one  of  your  own  number  and  class,  can  be  the  more  readily 
and  easily  received ;  but  I  shall  endeavor  to  make  it  still  more 


30  True   Happestess. 

evident,  I  love  to  collate,  compare  and  draw  evidence  for  truth 
from  any  quarter.  "  The  prudent  man  foreseeth  the  evil  and 
liideth  himself,  but  the  simple  go  on  and  are  punished." 

Every  reflecting  mind  will  admit  that  the  combination  of  the 
spiritual  and  intellectual  forms  the  only  happiness  worthy  the 
name,  which  I  call  true  happiness.  This  being  in  the  possession 
of  any  soul,  he  may  be  said  to  have  obtained  "  the  pearl  of  great 
price."  But  none  ever  reached  this  goal  till  Jesus  Christ  came, 
and,  by  the  sacrifice  and  crucifixion  of  all  the  sensual  and  merely 
animal  appetites,  obtained  and  then  declared  the  truth  to 
the  world :  "  This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it."  Since  then, 
philosophers  and  pious  men,  on  the  natural  plane  of  life,  could 
onl}^  approximate  the  truth,  we  should  learn  of  those,  if  such  can 
be  found,  "  who  have  purified  their  souls  in  obeying  the  truth 
through  the  spirit,"  —  (1  Pet.  i,  22)  —  by  obedience  to  Him  who 
first  found  the  whole  truth  and  brought  "  life  and  immortality  to 
light."  For,  "  if  any  of  you  err  from  the  truth,  and  any  one 
convert  him — he  who  converteth  the  sinner  from  the  error  of 
his  way  shall  save  a  soul  from  death."  James  v,  20.  Then,  in 
accordance  with  the  testimony  and  life  of  the  Saviour,  I  aflirm 
this  great  truth,  which  w^as  hidden  from  the  world  till  Christ, 
viz. :  that  all  the  miseries  that  are  in  the  world,  and  afflict  the 
human  family,  or  ever  will  afflict  them,  are,  and  will  be  the  con- 
sequence of  the  indulgence  of  the  lower  passional  nature  of  man. 
On  the  other  hand,  all  true  happiness  that  was  ever  gained  by  any 
soul,  was  the  consequence  of  self-abnegnation,  that  is  the  denial 
of  the  selfish,  sensual,  and  lower  propensities ;  that  is  to  say,  in 
brief,  self-denial  bringeth  happiness  —  self-indulgence  bringeth 
misery.  None  can  gainsay  this  truth.  It  comes  to  the  home 
experience  of  every  man.  Take  any  twenty-four  hours  of  your 
life,  and  before  God  and  your  own  conscience  compare  notes,  and 
see  if  I  am  not  sustained  in  this  declaration.  Then  write  it  in 
your  minute-books  and  in  your  albums,  and  above  all,  write  it  in 
your  hearts  ;  and  if  you  practice  it  in  your  daily  conduct  through 
life,  "your  soul  shall  be  saved  from  death."  All  men  —  great 
and  good  men  —  anterior  and  subsequent  to  the  advent  of  Christ, 
who  are  living  on  the  Adamic  or  natural  plane,  have  believed,  and 
still  believe,  that  a  moderate  indulgence  of  the  selfish  and  sensual 
appetites  was  compatible  with  the  celestial  or  higher,  Christ  life, 
and  the  best  of  them  think  some  such  gratification  cannot  be 
avoided.    Hear  Plato:  "The  nature  of  mankind  is  greatly  degen- 


Plato  and  Locke.  31 

erated  and  depraved.  All  manner  of  disorders  infest  Imman 
nature,  and  men,  being  impotent,  are  torn  in  pieces  bj  their 
lusts  as  by  so  many  wild  horses."  So  it  was ;  man  was  impotent. 
Until  Christ,  there  was  none  to  set  the  example  or  lead  the  way ; 
but  He  comes  with  a  light  eclipsing  all  former  lights ;  with  this 
great  truth  inscribed  on  His  unfurled  banner,  floating  before  the 
eyes  of  the  world  :  Self-indulgence  hringeth  misery  /  self-denial 
hringeth  happiness.  He  does  not  admit  of  even  a  moderate 
indulgence  of  the  selfish  and  sensual,  but  gives  His  whole  soul 
and  body  to  God,  and  then  says  to  the  world,  "^ollow  me." 
Christ  does  not  admit  impotence  in  his  true  followers,  and  Paul 
says  he  "  can  do  all  things  (necessary  to  salvation)  through  Christ 
strengthening  him."  And  how  does  Christ  strengthen  His  fol- 
lowers ?  He  strengthens  them  by  His  teaching,  but  more  by  His 
example.  Although  Locke  admits  the  impotency  of  man,  he  tells 
us  some  good  things :  "  If  any  extreme  disturbance  (as  sometimes 
it  happens)  possesses  our  whole  mind  —  as  when  the  pain  of  the 
rack,  love,  anger,  or  au}^  other  violent  passion  running  away  with 
us,  allows  us  not  the  liberty  of  thought  —  God,  who  knows  our 
frailty,  pities  our  weakness,  and  reqnires  of  us  no  more  than  we 
are  able  to  do,  and  will  judge  us  as  a  kind  and  merciful  father. 
But  the  forbearance  of  a  too  hasty  compliance  with  our  desires, 
the  moderation  and  restraint  of  our  passions,  so  that  our  under- 
standing may  be  free  to  examine,  and  reason,  unbiased,  gives  its 
judgment,  being  that  wdiereon  a  right  direction  of  our  conduct  to 
true  happiness  depends  —  it  is  in  this  we  should  employ  our  chief 
care  and  endeavors.  In  this  Ave  should  take  pains  to  suit  the 
relish  of  our  minds  to  the  true,  intrinsic  good  or  ill  that  is  in 
tilings.  How  much  this  is  in  every  one's  power,  by  making 
resolutions  to  himself,  such  as  he  may  keep,  is  easy  for  every  one 
to  try.  JSTor  let  any  one  say  he  cannot  govern  his  passions ,'  nor 
hinder  tJietn  from  hreahing  out  and  carrying  him  into  action  • 
for  ivhat  he  can  do  hefore  a  prince  or  a  great  man  he  can  do 
alone,  or  in  the  presence  of  God,  if  he  will.''^  This  is  certainly 
commendable  advice  and  sound  reasoning,  but  I  am  of  the 
opinion  that  none  will  be  able  to  fully  keej)  themselves  without 
the  facilities  afforded  in  God's  Zion,  or  the  order  He  has  estab- 
lished on  earth  for  the  protection  and  redemption  of  man.  We 
must  put  on  the  "  whole  armor  of  God,"  and  follow  Christ  in 
the  regeneration.  "  If  thou  will  be  perfect,  go  sell  that  thou 
hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven  ; 


32  True   Happiness. 

and  come  and  take  up  the  cross  and  follow  me."  Mark  x,  21. 
But  some  complain  of  the  tempter :  "  Watch  and  pray,  lest  you 
enter  into  temptation."  The  vigilance  Avliich  saves  from  the 
tempter  for  one  hour  will  save  for  two,  and  the  vigilance  that 
saved  for  two  hoars  will  save  for  a  week,  and  that  which  saved 
for  a  week,  if  continued,  will  save  throughout  life.  But  of  him 
that  yieldeth,  it  is  written :  "  He  goeth  straightway  as  an  ox  goeth 
to  the  slaughter,  or  as  a  fool  to  the  correction  of  the  stocks,  till  a 
dart  strike  through  his  liver ;  as  a  bird  hasteneth  to  the  snare  and 
knoweth  not  it  is  for  his  life.  Hearken  unto  me  now,  therefore, 
O  ye  children,  and  attend  to  the  words  of  my  mouth  :  Her  house 
is  the  way  to  hell,  going  down  to  the  chambers  of  death." 
Prov.  vii,  22,  23,  27.  But  let  no  man  say  another  tempts  him, 
for  the  motor  is  within ;  the  tempter  is  there,  and  the  power  of 
resistance  is  there.  "  Let  no  man  say,  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am 
tempted  of  God.  But  every  man  is  tempted  when  he  is  drawn 
away  of  his  own  lust  and  enticed  (not  the  lust  of  somebody  else, 
but  his  own).  Then  when  lust  hath  conceived,  it  bringeth 
forth  sin,  and  sin,  when  it  is  finished,  bringeth  forth  death." 
James  i,  13.  This  is  the  consequence.  Xow,  then,  the  life  of 
Jesus  Christ  —  what  was  it  ?  A  life  of  self-denial  or  of  indul- 
o^ence?     "Was  His  life  a  worldlv  life  or  something  else? 

O  tJ  CD 

Let  me  ask  you,  who  profess  to  be  Christians,  was  the  Christ 
life  a  higher  life  than  any  of  you  now  live,  or  was  it  lower  ?  Or 
was  it  the  same  ?  One  thing  is  very  certain  —  His  life,  which  He 
commends  us  to  copy,  was  either  a  higher  life  than  yours,  or  it 
was  lower,  or  it  was  the  same.  Can  any  one  lay  his  hand  upon 
his  heart  and  say  his  life  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  professing 
world  ?  If  not,  all  are  bound  to  acknowledge  that  His  is  the 
higher  life,  which  we  are  bound  to  copy,  or  not  call  ourselves 
Christians.  When  Christ  came,  he  found  the  natural  order  in  as 
much  perfection,  the  marriage  relation  as  sacred  and  as  much 
respected  as  it  is  to-day,  and  all  the  old  heaven  system,  with  its 
pillars  and  corner-stones  as  erect  and  perfect  as  now.  Did  He 
come  to  inake  no  change  ?  Was  He  satisfied  with  the  old  ?  or 
did  He  set  about  the  creation  of  new  heavens  and  earth  ?  If  so, 
how  comes  it  that  His  professed  followers  are  satisfied  with,  and 
to  be  in,  the  old  heavens,  on  the  lower  fioor,  and  this  in  a  very 
dilapidated  condition  ?  How  is  this  ?  Did  He  only  come  to  get 
up  the  most  fallacious  story,  and  then  say  to  the  world :  "  Only 
believe  this  story,  and  you  can  remain  in  the  old  heavens,  and 


Sowing  to  the  Flesu,  33 

live  the  life  of  generation,  copying  the  old  life  of  Adam  and 
Eve,  and  I  will  receive  you,  and  you  shall  be  my  children  i " 
How  is  this?  Does  this  appear  reasonable?  Let  us  not  be 
longer  deceived,  "  for  God  is  not  mocked.  Whatsoever  a  man 
soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap.  If  we  sow  to  the  flesh,  we  shall 
of  the  flesh  reap  corruption ;  but  if  we  sow  to  the  spirit,  we  shall 
of  the  spirit  reap  life  everlasting."  Gal.  vi,  8.  What  do  any 
snppose  is  meant  by  "  sowing  to  the  flesh  ? "  "  Let  us  have  clear 
ideas,  and  understand  each  other.  What  did  old  Adam  do  ? 
Did  he  sow  to  the  flesh  or  sow  to  the  spirit  ?  Whatsoever  is  born 
of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and  whatsoever  is  born  of  the  spirit  is 
spirit."  You  will  doubtless  acknowledge  that  Adam,  Noah,  and 
the  Patriarchs,  and  all  the  pillars  of  the  old  heaven  sowed  to  the 
flesh,  and  so  they  all  did  till  the  coming  of  the  "  Son  of  Man," 
and  so  do  the  professors  of  to-day  —  they  all  go  on  sowing  to  the 
flesh,  and  the  promise  of  God  is  sure  to  them,  and  that  is,  "  they 
shall  reap  corruption."  What  dift'erence  do  any  suppose  God  will 
make  between  a  professed  minister  of  the  gospel  and  Ins  slave, 
when  both  of  them  are  sowing  to  the  "flesh?  Will  he  give  cor- 
ruption to  the  slave  and  life  everlasting  to  the  minister  ?  By  no 
means.  God  is  just,  and  no  respecter  of  persons;  and  where  the 
works  and  motives  are  the  same,  the  reward,  rest  assured,  will  be 
the  same. 

Again,  how  cruelly  mistaken,  and  what  an  egregious  blunder 
the  Son  of  God  made,  if  He  came  to  "  create  new  heavens  and 
earth  wherein  righteousness  should  dwell,"  if  the  old  would  still 
answer  the  purpose  of  salvation,  wherein  all  manner  of  unx\^\i- 
eousness,  and  hardly  any  thing  else,  exists !  Christ  was  not  the 
supreme^  but  the  Son  of  God  —  a  godly  man  —  who  was  "  tempted 
in  all  points  (not  some  points)  as  we  are."  But  what  did  He  do? 
Why  He  denied  himself  to  all  ungodliness,  and  every  worldly  lust, 
even  in  its  most  retined  and  modified  forms,  and  recjuired  the 
same  of  all  His  followers.  Then  I  put  to  all  the  pertinent  ques- 
tion :  Is  not  the  man,  who,  for  purity's  sake,  likewise  denies  him- 
self as  did  Jesus,  nearer  like  the  pattern  than  any  one  who  does 
not  thus  deny  himself  ?  The  honest  answer  must  be  that  he  is. 
Hence,  after  denying  himself,  Christ  says  :  "  If  any  man  (black, 
white,  bond  or  free),  will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself 
(not  gratify  himself),  and  take  up  the  cross  and  follow  me ;"  not 
follow  somebody  else,  neither  John  the  Baptist,  Moses,  nor  some 
5 


34  True  Happiness. 

of  the  patriarchs,  but  follow  me.  But  how  do  the  people  act  ? 
They  act  as  if  Christ  had  said  :  "  If  any  man  will  come  after  me, 
let  him  gratify  himself."  Peoi^le  by  their  actions  imply  all  this 
and  more.  But  the  apostle  says :  "  They  that  are  Christ's  have 
oruciiied  the  flesh  with  the  affections  and  lusts."  ''  And  if  we 
live  in  the  spirit,  let  us  walk  in  the  spirit."  Gal.  5  :  24.  If  Paul 
had  only  said :  "  They  that  are  Christ's  have  gratified  the  flesh 
with  the  affections  and  lusts,"  I  would  at  once  bow  to  the  pro- 
fessors of  Christianity,  black  and  white,  "  blue  spirits  and  gray ;" 
for  nothing  more  true  could  be  said  of  them.  But  it  so  happens 
that  the  terms  crucified  and  gratified  are  not  synonyms.  And  I 
would  ask  where  is  the  professor  of  Christianity  among  all  the 
worldly  sects  —  I  mean  outside  of  this  fold  —  who  can,  with  this 
single  test  of  Paul's  before  him,  stand  up,  with  his  hand  on  his 
heart,  and  his  eyes  turned  toward  heaven,  and  say :  "  I  am  a 
Christian  ?  "  I  venture  the  assertion  that  not  one  can  be  found. 
And  why  ?  Because  they  all  go  on  gratifying  the  flesh  instead 
of  crucifying  it.  They  also  live  in  the  flesh  and  walk  in  the 
flesh ;  all  in  direct  opposition  to  the  test  here  given  by  Paul. 
This  is  a  sweeping  charge,  and  oh !  that  it  were  only  false  !  In 
heaven's  name,  and  the  name  of  Christianity,  I  fervently  wish  it 
were.  There  is  but  one  right  way,  and  I  cannot  say  any  are  right 
when  the  good  fruits  are  not  manifest. 

I  have  endeavored  to  convince  all  that  by  coming  into  the  "  new 
world  "  —  by  taking  up  the  cross  and  leading  the  Christian  life  of 
self-denial  —  all  would  thereby  be  rendered  more  happy  here  and 
hereafter,  than  by  remaining  in  the  "  old  heavens  "  and  continu- 
ing in  the  worldly  life.  If  this  is  not  true,  the  Son  of  God  failed 
in  His  mission,  and  came  into  the  world  in  vain.  All  will  admit, 
however,  that  moments  of  pleasure  attend  you : 

"  There  is,  I  grant,  a  triumph,  of  the  pulse, 
A  dance  of  spirits,  a  mere  froth  of  joy, 
That  mantles  high,  that  sparkles  and  expires, 
Leaving  the  soul  more  vapid  than  before." 

But  if  there  are  still  those  who  contend  that  true  and  perfect 
happiness  is  to  be  found  in  the  outer  world,  let  them  produce 
their  evidence.  Statistics  have  shown  that  in  at  least  one  locality, 
out  of  about  one  hundred  thousand  families,  only  thirteen  were 
considered  perfectly  happy !     But  the  condition  of  even  the  best 


Tbue  Happiness.  35 

of  these,  the  confessional  might  disclose  the  part  of  Popes  Placebo 
and  Justin : 

"In  spite  of  all  his  praises  must  declare, 
All  lie  can  find  is  bondage,  cost  and  care ; 
Heaven  knows,  I  shed  full  many  a  private  tear. 
And  sigh  in  silence,  lest  the  world  might  hear!" 

If  this,  then,  is  the  case  with  those  considered  most  happy, 
what  must  be  that  of  the  most  miserable  ? 

And  what  the  condition  of  the  llheHine,  whose  sole  enjoy- 
ment is  — 

"  — — A  transient  ffust, 


Spent  in  a  sudden  storm  of  lust — 

A  vapor  fed  from  wild  desire — 

A  wandering,  self-consuming  fire  ?  " 


THE  CAUSE  OF  TRUE  HAPPINESS. 


It  would  be  a  heinous  crime  in  any  person  to  use  his  endeavors 
to  render  any  human  being  unliappy;  but  the  surgeon  who 
amputates  a  hmb,  although  he  produces  momentary  suffering, 
does  a  benevolent  act,  as  the  pain  thus  inflicted  is  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  body.  So  it  is  with  individuals,  who  many  times 
inflict  on  themselves  temporary  pain  for  the  sake  of  future 
■  comfort. 

There  is  scarcely  any  thought  within  the  mind  that  does  not 
either  produce  happiness  or  misery,  and  this  hapj)iness  or  misery 
depends  mainly  on  our  previous  action.  If  we  have  governed 
the  passions,  and  acted  honorably,  our  reflections  produce  happi- 
ness ;  if  we  have  not,  we  have  misery. 

"  The  infinitely  wise  author  of  our  being  has  given  us  power 
over  the  several  parts  of  our  bodies,  to  move  them  or  to  keep 
them  at  rest,  as  we  see  fit ;  and  the  same  over  our  minds,  to 
choose  among  its  ideas  which  it  will  think  on."  "  And  He  will 
show  us  the  path  of  life ;  in  whose  presence  is  fullness  of  joy, 
and  at  whose  right  hand  are  pleasures  evermore."  Psa.  xvi,  11. 
Then,  "  let  the  unrighteous  man  forsake  his  tlioughtsP  Here  is 
where  self-denial  should  beo-in.  If  the  thouojhts  are  directed 
aright,  right  actions  will  follow  as  a  consequence,  and  happiness 
be  the  result.  Of  this  I  feel  certain,  that  any  one  who  will  avail 
himself  or  herself  of  the  facilities  afforded  by  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  even  though  he  or  she  may  have  been  weakened  by  mal- 
practice, can,  by  the  choice  of  his  or  her  mind,  in  preferring  sub- 
jects to  think  on,  or  actions  to  perform,  or  motion  or  rest  for  any 
part  of  the  body,  cause  the  existence  or  non-existence  of  such 
action  or  motion,  "  they  shall  have  power  to  become  the  Sons  and 
daughters-  of  God."  Hence,  says  Christ :  "  If  thine  eye  offend 
thee,  pluck  it  out  and  cast  it  from  thee,  for  it  is  profitable  that 
one  of  thy  members  should  perish,  and  not  that  thy  whole 
body  should  be  cast  into  liell ;  and  if  thy  right  hand  offend  thee, 
cut  it  off,  and  cast  it  from  thee,"  etc.  Matt,  v,  29.  Christ 
would  not  have  thus  instructed  us,  unless  we  had  the  power  to  do. 
What  I  would  show  in  this  connection,  is  that,  notwithstanding 


Self-denial.  37 

I  have  said  that  we  could  secure  greater  happiness  here  and  liere- 
after  by  entering  Christ's  fold,  and  practicing  the  work  of  self- 
denial,  than  by  following  the  course  of  this  world,  yet  I  would 
deceive  none.  If  any  suppose  he  can  pluck  out  and  cut  off  the 
members,  which  are  dear  to  him,  without  suffering  pain,  he  is 
laboring  under  a  delusion.  What  I  would  liave  all  understand 
from  these  words  of  Christ  is,  that  in  order  to  secure  true  happi- 
ness, a  painful  operation  must  first  be  endured.  The  adulterous 
eye  must  be  plucked  out,  and  the  hand  that  worketh  iniquity 
must  be  amputated,  and  each  must  do  it  for  himself ;  but  he  can- 
not do  it  to  any  good  purpose  until  they  offend  his  higher 
impulses  and  aspirations.  Whenever  we  become  so  far  enlight- 
ened by  the  truth  as  to  discover  that  those  organs  are  obstructions 
to  our  spiritual  progress,  we  will  then  be  prepared  for  the  opera- 
tion, and  not  before.  Think  not  that  this  can  be  effected  without 
tribulation.  "And  one  of  the  elders  said  unto  me,  what  are 
these  arrayed  in  white  robes,  and  whence  come  they  ?  "  "  These 
are  they  which  came  out  of  great  tribulation,  and  have  washed 
their  robes  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  (life)  of  the 
Lamb.  For  the  Lamb  wiiicli  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall 
feed  them,  and  shall  lead  them  into  living  fountains  of  waters ; 
and  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes."  Rev.  vi,  13, 
14,  17.  Thus,  we  may  perceive,  that,  after  amputation,  the 
washing,  cleansing,  and  healing  processes  are  to  be  endured,  and, 
without  faithful  endurance  in  self-denial,  the  true  happiness 
sought  for  is  unattainable.  But  I  would  not,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  any  one  to  be  the  least  discouraged  on  account  of  anticipated 
tribulation ;  but  whenever  any  of  the  works  of  the  flesh  become 
offensive,  then  is  the  call  of  God  to  commence  the  plucking,  ampu- 
tating and  cleansing  to  be  healed  ;  and,  if  we  are  faithful,  God 
will  give  the  necessary  power  of  execution  and  endurance.  When 
this  period  arrives,  we  should  not  stop  to  consult  first,  second  nor 
third  cousins,  nor  nearer  relatives  about  it ;  but  like  Paul, 
come  right  up  to  the  good  work,  and  stop  not  to  "  confer  with 
flesh  and  blood ; "  and  when  once  M^e  have  put  our  hand  to  the 
gospel  plough,  look  not  back,  lest  we  "  fall  away,"  M'hen  our  mis- 
ery will  be  augmented  in  proportion  to  the  light,  gifts  and 
blessing  of  God  we  have  abused. 

"  Ere  such  a  soul  regains  its  peaceful  state, 
How  often  must  it  love,  how  often  hate — 
How  often  hope,  despair,  resent,  regret. 
Conceal,  disdain,  do  all  things  but  forget." 


38  Mission  of  Truth. 

None  will  now  say  that  I  have  tried  to  deceive  them.  But  it 
cannot  be  portrayed  so  plainly,  but  what  it  will  "  come  as  a  snare 
on  all  them  that  dwell  on  the  face  of  the  whole  earth."  Luke, 
xxi,  35.  "  Think  not,"  says  Christ,  "  I  am  come  to  send  peace 
on  earth :  I  came  not  to  send  peace,  but  a  sword.  For  I  am 
come  to  set  a  man  at  variance  against  his  father,  and  the  daughter 
against  her  mother,  and  the  daughter-in-law  against  her  mother- 
in-law,  and  a  man's  foes  shall  be  they  of  his  own  household.  And 
he  that  taketh  not  his  cross  and  followeth  after  me,  is  not  worthy 
of  me."  Matt,  x,  34,  38.  The  whole  nature  of  the  mission  of 
Christ  may  be  herein  discovered  :  The  call  is  from  the  rudi men- 
tal to  a  higher  state  of  existence.  Every  one  who  has  taken  time 
to  reflect  will  agree  that  the  generative  is  the  rudimental  condi- 
tion of  man  ;  promiscuity,  the  first  and  lowest ;  marriage  and 
orderly  generation,  the  second  and  best  condition  of  the  rudi- 
mental state,  which  still  leaves  man  on  the  same  plane  with  the 
orderly  part  of  the  animal  creation.  To  progress  at  all  from  the 
animal,  is  to  rise  with  Christ  to  the  celestial,  for  we  "  cannot 
serve  two  masters ' ' — the  flesh  and  the  spirit — nor  live  on  the  ani- 
mal and  celestial  plane  at  the  same  time.  If  we  attain  to  the 
latter,  the  former  must  be  rejected.  "  Choose  then  this  day 
Avhom  you  will  serve :  if  the  Lord  be  God  follow  him ;  if  Baal, 
then  follow  him.  For  know  ye  not  that  to  whom  ye  yield  your- 
selves servants  to  obey,  his  servants  ye  are  to  whom  ye  ol)ey, 
whether  of  sin  unto  death,  or  of  obedience  unto  righteousness. " 
Rom.  vi,  16. 

It  is  very  clear,  then,  that  all  who  choose  the  rudimental  life 

must  remain  on  a  level  with  the  animal  part  of  God's  creation — 

on  the  plane  of  self-love.     The  very  quintessence  of  this  state  is 

a  contracted   selfishness.     The  love  of  God,  which  is  universal, 

cannot  reign  in  the  soul ;  for  any  contracted  love  is  not  the  love 

of  God.     It  is  in  the  very  nature  and  fitness  of  things,  in  the 

highest  rudimental  condition,  that  their  loves  be  partial,  animal, 

selfish  ;  it  is,  and  must  be  so  with  man  and  beast,  with  fish  and 

fowl ;  and  cannot  be  otherwise.     Men   may  be  willing  for,  and 

even  wish  others  to  be  blest — still  it  is  self  first ;  and  the  very 

best  prayer  that  any  such  can  offer  from  the  heart  is  : 

"  Yet,  O  Lord,  bless  me  and  mine, 
With  graces  temporal  and  divine, 
That  I  for  gear  and  grace  may  shine, 

Excelled— by  none; 
And  all  the  glory  shall  be  thine — 

Amen,  Amen !  " 


Love  Your  Enemies.  39 

Men  may  and  do  repeat  verbal  orisons  of  higher  import,  but 
sounds  are  nothing  when  the  acts  of  their  lives  are  at  variance 
with  them.  Their  loves  being  partial,  their  happiness  is  partial ; 
their  desires  contracted,  their  happiness  is  contracted ;  being  con- 
tracted, it  has  its  beginning ;  having  its  beginning,  it  has  its 
ending.  The  quaint  Thackeray,  thus  well  describes  it :  "  Who 
does  not  know  of  eyes  lighted  by  love  once,  where  the  flame 
shines  no  more  ?  Of  lamps  extinguished,  once  properly  trimmed 
and  tended  ?  Every  man  has  such  in  his  house  ;  such  mementoes 
make  our  most  splendid  chambers  look  sad  ;  such  faces  in  a  day 
cast  a  gloom  on  our  sunshine.  To  oaths,  mutually  sworn,  and 
invocations  of  heaven,  and  priestly  ceremonies,  and  fond  belief, 
and  love  so  fond  and  faithful  that  it  never  doubted  that  it  should 
live  forever,  are  all  of  no  avail  toward  making  it  eternal.  It  dies 
in  spite  of  the  banns  of  the  priest.  It  has  its  course  like  all  mor- 
tal things — its  beginning,  its  progress,  and  decay.  It  buds  and 
blooms  into  sunshine,  and  it  withers  and  dies."  The  love  of  God 
alone  is  eternal. 

The  Saviour's  command  is :  "  Love  your  enemies.  If  you 
love  them  that  love  you,  what  reward  have  ye  ?  Do  not  publi- 
cans the  same  ?  If  ye  salute  the  brethren  only,  what  do  ye  more 
than  others  ?  "  Matt,  v,  46.  This  is  the  love  of  God  that  you 
keep  his  commandments.  1  John,  v,  3.  Hence  we  see  the  love 
of  God  is  universal,  and  must  extend  not  only  to  neutrals,  but  to 
enemies.  How  many  of  us  can  say  we  are  in  possession  of  God's 
love  ?  One  thing  is  certain  :  His  love  is  either  contrapted  and 
partial  or  it  is  not ;  and  if  any  partial  love  can  be  God's  love,  it 
only  then  remains  for  us  to  know  how  much  it  may  be  contracted 
and  still  continue  to  be  God's  love  in  the  soul.  Can  it  be  con- 
tracted to  one  nation  ?  or  one  tongue  ?  or  one  color  ?  or  one  pro- 
fession ?  If  so,  why  not  to  one  family,  or  to  one  person,  or  even 
to  one's  self  ?  Can  any  one  of  these  be  God's  love  ?  By  no 
means.  It  follows,  then,  that  any  one  thus  circumscribed  has  not 
God's  love  in  the  soul.  Oh !  how  weak  short-sighted  mortals 
sometimes  are !  What  folly,  what  miserable  folly  it  is  in  any 
one  to  base  his  happiness  on  such  a  fleeting  shadow.  Of  its  dis- 
astrous consequences,  evidence  is  nowhere  wanting.^  Such  ones 
generally  expect  the  loved  one  to  afford  them  much  pleasure ;  but 
failing  in  this  expectation,  their  love  oozes  out  in  proportion  to 
their  disappointment.  It  wanes,  withers,  fades,  and  dies.  The 
loss  of  the  realization  of  their  fond  hopes,  either  before  or  after 


40  Mission  of  Truth. 

trial,  not  unfrequeiitly  destroys  tlie  functions  of  tlie  body,  and 
occasions  pining,  melancholy,  insanity  and  death.  Of  one  such, 
who  took  to  the  Dismal  Swamp,  in  Virginia,  the  poet  Moore 
sang : 

"  He  built  him  a  boat  of  tlie  birchen  bark, 
Wliich  carried  him  off  from  the  shore — 
Far,  far  he  followed  the  meteor  spark — 
The  winds  were  high  and  the  clouds  were  dark ; 
But  the  boat  returned  no  more!  " 

IN^ot  so  with  God's  love.  In  this,  there  are  no  mistakes,  no 
blunders ;  it  brings  no  disappointments ;  it  brings  no  tears,  no 
sorrow,  no  pining,  no  repining,  no  melancholy,  no  insanity,  no 
death  ;  but  is  like  a  "  well  of  water  springing  up  to  everlasting 
life."  In  the  picture  given  by  Thackeray,  we  see  the  condition  of 
rudimental  man,  with  his  perisliing  hopes,  loves  and  joys.  But  it 
is  said  ''  truth  is  stranger  than  fiction  ;"  and  certainly  it  is  passing 
strange  that  enlightened,  human  beings,  who  know  the  truth  of 
these  statements,  and  with  tlie  life  and  teachings  of  the  Saviour 
before  them,  still  continue  to  "  chase  a  phantom  through  the  fire, 
o'er  bog  and  brake,  and  precipice,  till  death,  all  for  contaminating 
trash  or  one  thrill  of  sensual  delight !  even  at  the  expense  of  their 
union  with  God,  their  hope  of  heaven  ;  they  stoop  down  and 
worship  mere  filthiness!  And  thus  are  they  goaded  through 
every  slough,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave !  "  forging  their  own 
manacles,  and  loading  themselves  down  with  fetters  and  ponder- 
ous chains,  coil  after  coil,  each  more  difficult  to  sunder  than  the 
first ;  locking  their  own  prison  doors,  and  darkening  the  windows, 
that  no  light  may  possibly  reach  them,  to  expose  them  even  to 
themselves ! 

''  Oh !  where  the  slave  so  lowly, 
Condemned  to  chains  unholy, 

Who,  could  he  burst 

His  bands  at  first, 
Would  pine  beneatli  them  slowly?  " 

But  it  is  one  of  the  easiest  things  in  the  world  for  men  to  find 
reasons  for  what  tliey  desire. .  I  venture  the  assertion  that  there 
never  was  a  soul  that  experienced  hell,  but  could  furnish  you  a 
reason  how  he  came  to  get  there,  just  as  though  he  ought  not  to 
suffer  because  he  could  furnish  a  reasonable  excuse  for  doing  the 
acts  that  brought  him  there  !     Thus  people  go  the  road  to  ruin. 


Equal  Rights.  41 

pleading  excuse  to  themselves  all  the  way,  and  flattering  God 
with  his  goodness  and  mercy,  but  forgetting  that  he  is  just.  The 
dram-drinker  pleads  the  stomach's  necessities  ;  the  tobacco-chewer, 
the  inactivit}'  of  the  salival  glands ;  the  gambler,  "  if  we're  agreed 
whose  business  is  it  'i  "  the  publisher  of  light  literature,  the  demands 
of  the  public ;  the  lawyer  must  defend  his  client,  innocent  or 
guilty ;  the  doctor  had  better  take  money  for  a  dough  pill  than 
for  one  that  would  injure  the  patient ;  the  merchant  and  broker 
mast  accommodate  the  public;  the  harlot  pleases  the  demands  of 
libertines  as  a  means  of  subsistence  ;  the  libertines  plead  the  har- 
lot's necessities  and  the  demands  of  their  God-given  natures  (?), 
and  the  orderly  generative  man  cannot  follow  Christ  because  he 
has  the  higher  (!)  duty  to  perform  of  peopling  the  world,  that 
God  may  have  more  souls  to  worship  Him.  This  latter  I  propose 
to  examine,  as  it  carries  on  its  face  a  degree  of  plausibility  which 
entitles  it  to  some  consideration  —  all  the  rest  suiBciently  exposing 
themselves. 

First,  Are  these  generating  men  sincere,  who  at  the  same  time 
acknowledge  it  more  than  probable  that  nine-tenths  of  the  souls 
thus  propagated  will  be  candidates  for.  and  denizens  of  tlie  lower 
regions?  Thus  nine-tenths  of  their  work  is  for  the  devil,  and 
only  one-tenth  for  God — nine-tenths  for  misery,  one-tenth  for 
happiness — ^  nine-tenths  for  hell  and  one-tenth  for  heaven.  While 
this  is  the  belief,  and  facts  appear  to  demonstrate  its  truth,  the 
excuse  for  propagation  seems  utterly  void  of  justifiable  or  reason- 
able foundation,  and  only  exposes  the  hypocrisy  of  him  who 
urges  it. 

Secondly,  the  argument  further  runs :  Whether  one  or  all  of 
my  offspring  get  to  heaven  or  hell  is  a  matter  between  them  and 
their  God.  But  it  is  right  for  all  men  to  do  right ;  a  right  can- 
not be  wrong ;  and  what  is  right  for  one  man  is  right  for  all  men ; 
and  what  is  right  for  all  men  is  wrong  to  be  neglected  by  any 
man ;  for  to  neglect  a  right  thing  is  a  sin  of  omission.  It  is  fur- 
ther urged,  if  we  are  not  to  be  saved  until  we  cease  propagation, 
then  all  ought  to  cease ;  for  certainly  all  ought  to  be  saved.  If 
this  cessation  is  necessar}^  to  salvation,  it  is  then  right  for  it  to 
cease.  Hence  it  follows  if  all  do  right  the  earth  will  inevitably 
become  a  howling  wilderness  in  less  than  two  hundred  years,  and 
thus  God  would  be  made  to  defeat  His  own  purposes. 

I  will  examine  the  sincerity  of  these  generating  saints.  They 
assert  that  it  is  right  for  men  to  propagate,  and  according  to  their 
6 


42  Mission  of  Truth. 

mode  of  reasoning  it  is  right  for  all  men,  and  being  right  for  all 
men,  it  is  wrong,  and  consequently  a  sin,  for  any  one  to  omit  or 
neglect  this  right  thing.  This  would  make  Jesus  Christ  and 
Paul,  and  in  fact  all  of  Christ's  immediate  followers  and  the  apos- 
tolic church  at  Jerusalem  sinners !  Again,  these  sophistical  rea- 
soners  say  it  is  right  to  fight,  and  go  themselves  as  chaplains  for 
the  armj^,  urging  mad  men  on  to  carnage,  blood  and  slaughter, 

"Who,  foe  to  nature,  hears  the  general  groan, 
Murders  their  species,  and  betrays  his  own." 

Then,  according  to  their  logic,  it  is  right  to  kill  men,  and  if  it 
is  right  for  one,  it  is  right  for  all,  and  being  right  for  all,  it  is 
wrong  in  any  to  omit  it;  and  what  would  be  the  consequence? 
The  world  would  be  depopulated  in  less  than  one  decade,  instead 
of  two  hundred  years.  Thus  do  those  sophists  outreason  them- 
selves. But  candor  compels  me  to  admit  the  reasoning  to  be 
good  from  the  premises  assumed  ;  and  were  the  postulate  true,  it 
could  not  be  faulty ;  but,  unluckily  for  them,  their  postulate  is 
false ;  for,  what  is  right  for  one  man  is  not  right  for  all  men. 
There  is  only  one  thing  in  my  knowledge  which  is  right  for  all 
men ;  and  that  is  :  It  is  right  for  all  men  to  think,  speak,  and 
act  in  conformity  with  the  highest  light  God  has  vouchsafed  to 
them — the  highest  they  are  capacitated  to  receive.  In  so  doing 
they  obey  God,  and  to  obey  God  is  to  do  right.  This  I  think 
cannot  successfully  be  resisted.  It  is  either  right  for  a  man  to 
do  what  he  conscientiously  believes  to  be  right,  or  else  he  must 
do  the  contrary — what  he  believes  to  be  wrong.  If  it  is  right 
for  a  man  to  do  what  he  believes  to  be  wrong,  then  I  grant  the 
whole  w^orld  is  doing  right ;  for  the  number  is  small,  indeed,  who 
do  not  do  what  they  think  is  wrong  under  the  shining  sun  of 
every  day. 

But  I  am  pressed  further,  and  told  that  a  principle  is  wrong  in 
the  abstract,  which,  if  carried  out,  would  militate  against  the 
plans  of  the  Creator.  I  beg  leave  to  say  that  abstract  evil  is  only 
a  creature  of  the  imagination  ;  instead  of  wrong  existing  ab- 
stractly, it  exists  concretely,  nowhere  only  in  persons.  We 
make  ideal  abstractions  of  goodness,  whiteness,  blackness,  etc., 
when  such  abstractions  have  no  existence  only  in  our  minds ;  for 
goodness  can  have  no  existence  only  as  it  inheres  in  some  being 
or  substance  capable  of  being,  or  doing  good,  and  just  so  of  all 
other  abstractions.      But  the  same  argument  comes  against  the 


Material  Destkuction.  43 

principle  of  propagation  that  does  against  non-propagation.  The 
earth,  we  know,  is  of  a  given  size — ^just  so  many  roods  and 
perches.  The  best  calculation  makes  it  to  contain  thirty-two 
billions  of  acres.  It  is  ascertained  that  there  are  now  about 
eleven  hundred  millions  souls  on  the  earth's  surface,  and  this 
population  doubles  itself  in  less  than  sixty  years,  with  all  the 
deaths  by  disease,  wars,  famines  and  celibates  that  have  ever 
existed.  According  to  this,  five  hundred  years  will  see  the  end 
of  the  world  if  propagation  goes  on  at  the  former  rates  of  in- 
crease !  The  professing  evangelical  churches  believe  that  at  some 
time  God  will  burn  up  the  earth — men,  women,  children,  beasts, 
fish  and  fowl.  This  grand  conflagration  must  take  place  inside 
of  five  hundred  years,  else  people  will  die  of  starvation,  if  propa- 
gation goes  on  as  formerly.  But  professors  who  depend  so  very 
much  on  God's  mercy,  seem  not  to  be  alarmed,  neither  at  the 
shortness  of  the  time  nor  at  the  inhumanity  of  the  act ;  but  pro- 
fess to  believe  that  God,  with  a  lucifer  match,  will  touch  off  this 
earthly  ball  when  they  have  propagated  and  filled  it  with  human 
beings  to  its  utmost  capacity  ;  and  that  this  awful  day  may  soon 
come  is  the  prayer  of  all  Christendom  ;  and  when  the  trump 
sounds,  they  suppose  that  a  select  few  will  mount  the  skies  in 
the  upper  air,  the  majority  left  to  be  consumed  in  the  fire — these 
to  groan,  those  to  rejoice.  And  all  this  because  the  chosen  few 
stuck  to  their  faith  without  wavering ;  not  that  their  lives  had 
been  better  than  others,  but  because  they  never  ceased  to  believe 
they  should  see 

"  The  wide  earth  to  heaps  of  ashes  turned 
When  heaveu  itself  the  wandering  chariot  burned." 

This  has  been  the  theme  and  the  song  of  the  poet  and  the 
orator,  and  the  fervent  prayer  of  the  sinning  Christian  for  the 
past  thousand  years  and  more.  Oh  how  devoutly  is  it  prayed  for 
by  those  who  consider  themselves  the  select  few ;  who  on  that 
auspicious  day  will  rise  in  their  ascension  robes !  Holy  families ! 
Men  and  their  wives  and  their  children  shall  ascend  up  out  of 
harm's  way  : — 

"  Far  in  the  bright  recesses  of  the  skies, 
High  o'er  the  rolling  heavens,  a  mansion  lies," 

there  to  wait  and  sliout  themselves  hoarse,  until  God,  for  their 
special  convenience,  shall  have  created  a  new  earth  out  of  the 


44  Mission  of  Truth. 

ashes  of  the  old  one,  when  they  will  descend  and  take  "  peaceable 
possession,"  and  then  propagate  a  new  race,  which,  of  course,  will 
not  fall  again  as  old  Adam  did,  for  all  the  Adams  and  Eves  of 
this  country  will  be  holy  ! 

Although  Pope,  in  the  lines  quoted,  might  seem  to  favor  the 
general  belief,  yet  he  forcibly  corrects  it : 

"  O  Sons  of  earth!  attempt  ye  still  to  rise, 
By  uiountaiu  piled  on  mountains  to  the  skies  ? 
Heaven  still  with  laughter  the  vain  toil  survej's, 
And  buries  madmen  in  the  heaps  they  raise." 

But  Dr.  Young,  the  pious  believer,  most  sublimely  portrays 
the  (anti)  Christian  idea  : 

1 1      *     He     *     ^^  ^|-,g  destined  hour, 
By  the  loud  trumpet  summoned  to  the  charge ; 
See  all  the  formidable  sons  of  fire — 
Eruptions,  earthquakes,  comets,  and  lightnings  play 
Their  various  engines ;  all  at  once  disgorge 
Their  blazing  magazines,  and  take  by  storm 
This  poor  citadel  of  man  .*=!:* 
*     Hell  bursting  forth  her  blazing  seas 
And  storms  sulphurous;  her  voracious  jaws 
Expanding  wide,  and  roaring  for  her  prey; 
Above,  around,  beneath,  amazement  all! 
Terror  and  glory  joined  in  their  extremes ; 
Our  God  in  grandeur,  and  our  world  on  fire !  " 

But  the  professing  world  are  mistaken  in  this,  as  they  seem  to 
be  in  most  other  things.  They  are,  first,  mistaken  in  Deity ; 
secondly,  in  Christ ;  thirdly,  in  the  Judgment ;  fourthly,  in  the 
world  that  God  has  promised  to  burn  up  ;  fifthl}',  in  the  qualities 
re:^uisite  to  constitute  a  true  Christian  ;  and  sixthly,  in  God's  plan 
for  the  redemption  and  salvation  of  man. 

I  do  not  doubt  the  honesty  and  sincerity  of  the  professing 
world  in  the  matter  here  set  forth ;  but  their  ideas  are  as  simple, 
ill-founded,  and  not  more  sublime  than  those  of  the  little  girl, 
who,  being  asked  by  her  mother  what  the  stars  were,  replied: 
"  They  were  holes  God  made  in  the  sky  to  let  the  glory  down." 

It  is  very  evident  to  me  that  God's  plan  for  burning  up  the 
world  is  quite  diiferent  from  that  entertained  by  the  nominal 
professors  of  Christianity.  His  plan  is  wise,  just,  merciful,  and 
good.  Theirs,  contracted,  partial,  selfish,  diabolical,  and  unjust ; 
doing  the  utmost  violence  to  all  the  attributes  they  ascribe  to 
Him.  The  "  arch-fiend  "  himself  whom  they  suppose  presides 
over  the  "  infernal  regions,"  could  invent  nothing  more  at  war 


Final    Consummation.  45 

witli  the  attributes  of  God  than  this  plan  for  the  consummation 
of  all  things.  To  till  the  earth  to  its  utmost  capacity,  then  on  a 
given  day  burn  it  up  with  literal  tire  —  men,  women,  boys,  girls, 
babies,  born  and  unborn  ;  and  then  give  his  "  infernal  majesty 
nine-tenths  of  the  proceeds."  Not  so,  friends.  The  wisdom  of 
God  is  displayed  in  this  ;  that,  while  He  burns  up  the  world,  He 
checks  propagation  — •  elevates  and  happities  the  man  by  calling 
him  out  from,  and  above,  the  rudiments  of  a  sinful  world. 

At  the  risk  of  being  thought  tedious,  I  will  notice  the  princi- 
pal text  of  scripture  relied  on  to  sustain  the  old  heaven  theory  : 
"  But  the  day  of  the  Lord  will  come  as  a  thief  in  the  night,  in 
which  the  (old)  heavens  shall  pass  away  with  a  great  noise,  and 
the  elements  (of  the  old  or  Adamic  world)  shall  melt  with  fer- 
vent heat ;  the  earth  also  (the  old  earth  and  earthly  works  of  the 
earthly  man  in  contradistinction  to  the  spiritual)  and  the  works 
(carnal)  that  are  therein  shall  be  burned  up  "  (by  the  fire  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ).  "  Seeing,  then,  that  these  (old,  earthly,  carnal) 
things  shall  be  dissolved,  what  mannei'  of  persons  ought  ye  to  be 
in  all  holy  conversation  and  godliness  (so  as  to  be  worthy  occu- 
pants of  the  new  earth  and  heavens  in  which  ye  now  reside  ? " 
H  Pet.  X,  11. 

Tlie  careful  student  need  not  have  any,  nor  but  little  difiiculty, 
if  he  w^ill  correctly  apply  the  terms  earth,  world,  and  heaven,  as 
well  as  Jire  and  huriihig,  etc.  Reference  being  nearly  always  had 
to  man  and  man's  condition  in  the  different  dispensations,  and 
rarely  to  our  globe  and  the  visible,  literal  heavens,  as  thought  by 
many.  I  would  cite  a  few  texts :  "  They  shall  be  burnt  with 
hunger,"  etc.  Deu.  xxxii,  2-1:.  "  A  fire  goeth  before  him.  His 
lightning  enlightened  the  world  (the  people  of  the  world).  The 
earth  saw  (earthly  men)  and  trembled.  The  hills  melted  (higli, 
exalted  men)  at  the  Lord's  presence."  Psalms  iii,  4,  5.  Then, 
says  Paul :  "  That  wicked  world  (or  spirit  of  iniquity  in  man) 
shall  be  revealed,  which  the  Lord  shall  consume  with  the  spirit 
of  his  mouth  (whose  tongue  is  a  devouring  tire  (Isaiah  xxxi,  27), 
and  shall  destroy  by  the  brightness  of  his  coming  (with  a  light 
eclipsing  all  other  lights)."     Thess.  ii,  8. 

"  Give  ear,  O  heavens  (people  of  the  old  hea^-ens),  and  I  will 
speak  ;  and  hear,  O  earth  (earthly  man),  the  words  of  my  mouth  : 
My  doctrine  shall  drop  as  the  rain ;  my  spirit  shall  distil  as  the 
dew,  as  the  small  rain  upon  the  tender  herb,  and  as  the  showers 
upon  the  grass."     Deut.  xxxii,  1,  2. 


ABSTRACT  EVIL. 


A  minister  of  note,  and  of  much  more  erudition  than  I  can 
claim  for  myself,  insists  upon  the  fact  of  abstract  evil,  saying  — 
first,  a  principle,  which,  if  acted  upon,  would  produce  evil,  is  an 
evil  principle,  therefore  evil  in  the  abstract ;  secondly,  a  being 
that  is  evil  in  and  of  himself,  such  as  the  devil,  is  abstract  evil ; 
thirdly,  the  disposition  in  man  to  dp  evil  is  an  evil  disposition, 
and  therefore  is  abstract  evil ;  fourthly,  the  fire  that  burns,  and 
the  floods  and  hurricanes  that  destroy  are  natural,  abstract  evils. 
I  will  examine  these  positions,  and,  if  I  find  them  true,  it  will  be 
my  pleasure  to  yield.  In  order  to  be  clear,  terms  must  be  well 
defined.  First, — "  Principle  in  a  general  sense  is  the  cause,  soui'ce, 
or  origin  of  any  thing,"  Secondly,  Evil — "  having  bad  quali- 
ties  —  deviation  from  good  by  a  moral  agent."  Thirdly,  —  In 
the  abstract,  "  a  state  of  separation,"  etc.  First  —  If,  upon  ex- 
amination, it  be  found  that  the  cause  of  evil  is  evil  itself,  or  has 
bad  qualities,  we  shall  then  have  abstract  evil.  The  numbers  6, 
8,  etc.,  are  of  themselves  abstract  numbers,  but  when  we  say  6 
feet,  10  men,  they  become  concrete.  They  are  nothing  more 
than  an  idea  until  linked  with  some  substance.  So  it  is  witli 
principles. 

"When  God  had  finished  His  works,  including  man,  He  not  only 
pronounced  them  good,  but  very  good ;  so  that  we  find  the  evil 
all  the  while  resulting  from  the  misapplication  or  wrong  use  of 
some  good  thing  —  so,  evil  is  concrete  /  for  instance,  the  prin- 
ciple of  hunger  in  man  causes  him  to  eat  to  sustain  life,  but  a 
wrong  use  of  the  faculties  that  satisfy  hunger  produces  evil  and 
death.  It  is  just  so  with  all  the  faculties  and  dispositions  per- 
taining to  our  existence.  When  we  see  a  man  disposed  to  do 
wrong,  we  say  he  is  yielding  to  the  evil  principle,  when  it  is 
nothing  more  than  a  wrong  use  of  a  good  faculty  or  j)rincii)le. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  all  natural  evil  —  the  wrong  use  of  a 
good  thing.  It  is  therefore  unphilosophical  to  suppose  that  good 
and  evil  exist  abstractly.     If  we  speak  of  whiteness  or  roundness. 


Cause  and  Effect.  47 

the  terms  are  abstract,  but  we  must  have  reference  to  some  sub- 
stance, either  white  or  round,  as  white  flour,  round  table,  etc., 
which  renders  them  concrete  and  not  abstract.  All  the  mental 
abstractions  which  we  make  of  good  and  evil  are  but  the  dispo- 
sitions of  the  mind  with  regard  to  pleasure  and  pain.  "Whatever 
results  in  happiness  we  call  good ;  and  whatever  results  in  misery 
we  call  evil ;  and  although  the  ideas  of  good  and  evil  are  distinct 
and  opposite,  as  much  as  pleasure  and  pain,  yet  nothing  is  more 
obvious  than  that  these  two  sensations  can  be  and  constantly  are 
produced  by  the  same  agent.  How  pleasant,  good,  and  agreeable 
is  fire  in  a  cold  day  at  a  proper  distance  ;  but  if  brought  too  near, 
what  evil  and  pain  it  produces.  How  terrible  the  calamity  when 
tliis  r/ood  thing  devours  cities  and  multitudes  of  human  beings, 
and  destroys,  as  it  does  sometimes,  tlie  labors  of  a  century  in  a 
day  !  The  same  may  be  said  of  water,  air,  and  other  substances. 
As  to  his  "  Satanic  Majesty  "  —  if  he  is  a  ball  of  evil  and  nothing 
else,  rolling  through  God's  universe,  throwing  off  his  scintilla- 
tions wherever  he  can  And  a  receptacle,  I  would  be  compelled  to 
admit  that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  abstract  evil ;  but  as  this  is 
not  palpable  and  admits  of  a  reasonable  doubt,  I  feel  obliged  to 
maintain  the  position  that  evil  is  concrete.  I  shall,  by  and  by, 
pay  my  devoir  to  the  supposed  important  being  called  Devil,  that 
has  claimed  so  great  a  share  of  public  notice  for  many  years.  But 
I  am  informed  that,  since  I  have  agreed  that  God  gave  us  all 
of  our  faculties,  and  that  they  are  not  only  good,  but  very  good, 
in  their  right  use,  where  is  the  reason  for  singling  out  and  con- 
demning the  faculties  of  procreation  ?  Please  do  not  forget,  that 
while  they  are  very  good  in  their  rigJit  use,  they  are  very  evil  in 
their  lorong  use.  And  where  is  the  man  who  is  able  to  use  the 
faculties  of  propagation  and  confine  them  to  the  right  use  ?  If 
there  is  none,  then  they  become  very  evil  instead  of  very  good, 
and  who  will  say  it  is  right  to  persist  in  very  evil  ? 

I  am  further  told  that  I  affirm  it  to  be  right  for  a  man  to  do 
what  he  conceives  to  be  right,  and  in  doing  this  he  is  obeying 
God,  and  in  obeying  God  "  he  is  accepted  with  Him  ; "  hence  if  a 
man  believes  it  is  right  to  propagate,  he  is  justified  and  accepted 
in  it.  I  still  affirm  the  same ;  and  that  no  man  does  his  whole 
duty  short  of  obeying  the  highest  light  God  has  given  him.  He 
must  obey  the  higher  or  lower  light.  The  man  who  feels  it  a 
duty  he  owes  to  God  to  propagate,  and  will  confine  himself 
strictly  within  the  bounds  of  God's  law  of  nature,  this  man  will 


48  Abstract    Evil. 

be  an  honor  to  the  race  and  will  be  "  accepted  with  God,"  but  he 
will  not  be  removed  from  the  natural  plane  of  being  to  the 
higher  Christ  plane,  until  he  becomes  further  enlightened.  He 
will  still  be  on  the  lower  floor.  But  if  he  continues  honest,  he 
will  leave  the  earthly  works  of  Adam  and  come  to  Christ.  Nor 
can  he  be  a  full  Christian  and  denizen  of  the  new  heavens  until 
this  last  move  is  made.  We  must  remember  that  people's  con- 
sciences need  to  be  enlightened  as  well  as  the  understanding,  and 
if  this  is  not  done,  as  it  was  to  Paul,  by  an  especial  afllux  from 
Christ  himself,  may  it  not  be  done,  as  Paul  says,  by  our  preach- 
ing ?  Let  me  again  impress  it  upon  you  that  the  very  best  con- 
,  dition  of  a  man  who  lives  on  the  natural,  Adamic  plane  is  heloio 
the  Christ  plane  and  below  the  condition  and  state  of  His  fol- 
lowers. You  are  kindly  invited,  then,  to  come  up  stairs,  away 
from  the  rudimental,  and  leave  the  less  enlightened  to  propagate 
until  they  shall  have  become  enlightened  by  "  the  true  light  that 
enlighteneth  every  one  that  cometh  into  the  (new)  world." 

But  if  your  unfoldment  or  spiritual  development  is  not  yet 
sufticient  to  enable  you  to  see  the  necessity  of  this,  then  it  is 
neither  proper  nor  right  for  you  to  come.  The  best  thing  for  you 
is  to  remain  on  the  low  floor  and  obey  the  Adamic  gospel :  Mul- 
tiply, replenish  and  subdue  the  earth  — ■  devoting  earthly  propen- 
sities to  the  uses  of  propagation  and  to  nothing  else. 

What  would  any  of  you  think  of  the  husbandman  who,  after 
sowing  his  field  in  wheat,  would  go  on  sowing  the  same  field 
until  harvest?  thus  not  only  losing  his  wheat,  but  blasting  every 
expectation  of  realizing  a  good  crop.  Would  jow  not  call  him 
insane.  Most  certainly.  Just  as  insane  is  the  man  who  is  con- 
tinually violating  God's  law  of  nature  for  the  sake  of  pleasure ; 
deadening  his  conscience,  injuring  his  health,  shortening  his 
natural  life,  and  blasting  every  prospect  for  sound  and  healthy 
offspring  !  Where  is  the  man  so  stupidly  blind  as  not  to  see  the 
degeneracy  of  the  race  under  such  action  !  Ye  men  of  nature, 
let  your  consciences,  and  riot  your  desire  for'  jpleasure,  guide 
your  action. 

Hear  Dr.  Beattie  :  "  Conscience  is  the  highest  faculty  in  the 
human  soul — the  connnanding,  the  authoritative  portion  of  our 
nature — that  which  we  are  constituted  to  feel  it  our  obligation,  as 
well  as  interest,  to  obey.  When  we  disobey  its  monitions  we  feel 
blame-worthy  and  are  so.  Since  conscience  prompts  to  virtue,  it 
is  a  just  inference  that  man  was  made  for  virtuous  action  ;  and  he 


Flesh  and  Spirit.  49 

does  not  act  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  nature  as  a  whole, 
when  he  gratifies  his  other  faculties  and  propensities  disapproved 
by  the  supreme  faculty — that  which  the  Creator  evidently  de- 
signed to  control  our  actions.  The  conclusion  is,  that  to  allow  no 
more  to  this  part  than  to  other  parts  of  our  nature — to  let  it 
guide  and  govern  only  occasionally,  in  common  with  the  rest,  as 
its  turn  happens  to  come — this  is  not  to  act  conformably  to  the 
constitution  of  man.  *  *  *  How  foolishly  those  men  argue 
who  give  way  to  all  their  passions  without  reserve,  and  excuse 
themselves  by  saying  that  every  passion  is  natural,  and  that  they 
cannot  be  blamed  for  doing  what  nature  prompts  them  to  do.  It 
is  only  a  part,  and  that  confessedly  inferior  part  of  their  nature 
that  prompts  them  to  such  indulgence.  Their  nature  as  a  whole 
remonstrates  against  such  indulgence.  It  is,  therefore,  unnatural 
in  the  proper  sense  of  that  word,  and,  therefore,  to  be  condemned 
and  abandoned."  Dr.  Beattie  was  doubtless  a  good,  natural 
man,  on  the  natural  plane,  and  it  would  be  well  for  the  world 
were  there  more  such.  He  was  under  the  law,  and,  perhaps, 
obedient  to  the  law,  and  as  such  an  honor  to  mankind  ;  but  sal- 
vation is  not  to  be  had  under  the  law.  "  For  what  the  law  could 
not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak  through  the  flesh,  God  sending  His 
own  Son,  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  condemned  sin  in  the 
flesh  that  the  righteousness  of  the  law  might  be  fulfllled  in  us, 
who  walk  not  after  the  flesh  but  after  the  spirit.  For  they  that 
are  after  the  flesh  do  mind  the  things  of  the  flesh."  And  where 
is  the  man  of  the  world,  married  or  single,  who  is  not  after  the 
flesh,  and  minding  the  things  of  tlie  flesh?  "But  they  that  are 
after  the  spirit  do  mind  the  things  of  the  spirit.  For  to  be  car- 
nally-minded is  death  (to  the  spirit),  but  to  be  spiritually-minded 
is  life  and  peace.  Because  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against 
God,  for  it  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither,  indeed,  can 
be ;  so,  then,  they  that  are  in  the  flesh  cannot  please  God." 
Rom.  iii,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8. 

I  would  have  you  particularly  notice  the  last  quoted  sentence. 
"  They  that  are  in  the  flesh  cannot  please  God^  Show  me  then 
the  married  man  who  is  not  emphatically  in  the  flesh,  and  con- 
tinually minding  the  things  of  the  flesh.  The  man  that  thinks  he 
is  not,  and  lives  in  nature's  works,  must  be  blind  indeed. 

"Oh!  blind  to  truth  and  all  God's  works  below, 
Who  fancy  bliss  to  vice,  to  virtue  woe." 

It  only  remains  for  us  to  examine  ourselves.     Ask  yourselves 

7 


60  Abstract  Evil. 

the  question  :  Am  I  in  the  spirit  (of  Christ),  walking  in  the 
spirit  ?  or  am  I  in  the  flesh  and  minding  the  things  of  the  flesh  ? 
If  we  decide  we  are  in  the  latter,  then  we  must  know  we  are 
weak  through  the  flesh  and  under  this  law,  and  cannot  please 
God.  This  is  reason  sufficient  to  justify  any  one  in  rejecting  and 
coming  out  from  the  rudimental  condition.  But  as  before  stated, 
if  any  one  having  no  higher  liglit  than  the  Adamic  gospel  can 
and  does  rule  and  'regulate  his  passions  in  the  natural  order,  take 
a  separate  chamber,  and  give  his  soul  to  God  on  retiring  to  rest, 
never  indulging  his  passions  only  as  a  duty  for  the  sake  of  propa- 
gation, I  would  say  of  such  a  man  as  Jesus  once  said  :  "  He  is 
not  far  from  the  kingdom  of  God."  He  only  wants  one  more 
step  on  the  rounds  of  "  Jacob's  ladder "  to  enter  the  "  new 
heavens,"  and  be  counted  among  the  redeemed.  But  if  this  can- 
not be  done,  the  only  chance  for  the  inebi'iate  is  "  total  absti- 
nence," I  think,  my  friends,  that  legal  prostitution  (pardon  my 
plainness  of  speech)  is  almost,  if  not  quite,  as  odious  in  the  sight 
of  God  as  the  illegal,  for  he  will  take  the  motive  for  every  act  in  the 
final  balance.  Let  me  illustrate :  Two  men  are  in  the  habit  of 
drinking  to  excess ;  one  rolls  a  barrel  of  brandy  into  his  cellar 
and  takes  his  excesses  at  home  in  a  legal  and  orderly  way ;  the 
other  visits  grog-shops  and  takes  his  by  the  glass.  I  wish  to 
know,  now,  first,  if  both  do  not  drink  brandy  ?  and,  secondly,  if  it 
has  not  the  same  effect  to  demoralize  and  destroy  both  body  and 
soul  of  each  of  them?  If  it  does,  where  is  the  essential  differ- 
ence between  them  ?  Just  so  it  is  with  perverted  amativeness  in 
the  married  state.  Do  not  misunderstand  me.  I  mean  they  are 
the  same  if  they  are  both  actuated  from  precisely  the  same  mo- 
tive, as  motive  must  constitute  the  crime. 

But  I  am  told  I  might  as  well,  and  for  the  very  same  reason, 
condemn  the  faculties  of  the  body  that  are  given  to  satisfy 
hunger  and  thirst,  as  most  men  and  women  "  now-a-days "  use 
these  faculties  merely  for  the  pleasure  arising  from  mastication 
and  deglutition,  and  not  for  use  nor  health.  My  response  to  this 
is :  "  Christ,  our  head  and  lead,  has  left  us  no  such  example ; 
nor  such  teaching  as  total  abstinence  from  eatino;  and  drinkino^. 
He  has  left  us  the  example  of  total  abstinence  from  sexual  inter- 
course; He  and  His  disciples  denied  themselves  on  this  point,  and 
taught  all  who  would  rise  into  newness  of  life  to  do  the  same,  and 
the  abuse  of  the  faculties  that  satisfy  hunger  and  thirst  does  not 
produce  the  one-thousandth  part  of  the  ills  that  "  flesh  is  heir  to," 


Perverted  Amativeness.  51 

that  the  abuse  of  amativeness  does.  This  latter  ramifies  all  na- 
tions, kindreds,  tongues,  colors,  sexes  and  ages,  from  children  to 
the  hoary  head,  dealing  out  desolation,  misery,  destruction  and 
death  to  soul  and  body,  in  the  whole  depth  and  breadth  of  its 
wide  track  around  the  world.  This  is  reason  enough  for  its  en- 
tire abandonment.  Dr.  Dwight,  in  an  essay  on  this  subject,  says  : 
"  I  shall  devote  a  little  space  to  the  mental  effects  from  the  abuse 
of  amativeness  (the  sexual  faculty). 

"  I  waive  the  quantum  of  the  sin ; 
Tlie  liazard  of  concealing. 
But  oh !  it  hardens  all  within. 
And  petrijies  the  feeling." 

It  produces  individual  peevishness,  fretfulness,  irritability,  and 
irrascibility,  family  jars  and  discords,  conjugal  quarrels,  spite 
vented  upon  innocent  children,  domestics,  and  slaves,  social 
animosities,  sectarian  strife,  religious  controversies,  political 
traduction,  civil  commotion,  legal  revenge,  professional  abuse, 
academical  conflicts,  national  wars  ;  all  these  will  be  coeval  with 
our  present  dynasty  of  lust  and  concupiscence.  All  the  propen- 
sities and  appetites  are  excited  and  inflamed  beyond  the  natural 
antagonistical  control  of  the  moral  powers.  But  I  cannot  merely 
glance  at  these,  Philoprogenitiveness  loses  the  moral  balance  of 
conscientiousness  and  benevolence ;  becomes  detached  from 
reflection,  vacillating  between  excessive  indulgence  to  children, 
and  unjust  repulsion.  Adhesiveness,  causing  indiff'erence  and 
contempt  for  friends,  taciturnity,  seclusion,  and  hermitage. 
Inhabitiveness,  causing  indifference  to  home  —  loaferism.  Con- 
centrativeness  inducing  fickleness,  inapplication,  unperserverance, 
e)uiui,  a  social  blank.  Acquisitiveness,  leading  to  improvidence 
for  one's  self,  household  or  the  world,  or  the  opposite  ;  exciting 
unjust  unlawful  means  to  obtain  money  for  the  gratification  of 
lust,  pride,  vanity,  etc.  Alimentiveness,  giving  irregularity  and 
depravity  of  appetite  ;  all  manner  of  cravings,  gnawings,  and 
perversions,  paving  the  way  for  flesh,  grease,  narcotics,  stimu- 
lants, excitants,  irritants,  etc.  ;  by  connection  with  perverted 
taste  one  of  the  principal  foundations  for  chewing  tobacco,  betel, 
opium,  etc.  But  among  all  the  fountains  of  the  brain,  vitative- 
ness  is  the  most  supremely  affected  by  perverted  amativeness, 
especially  artificial  indulgence.  But  in  the  wonderfully  incom- 
prehensible result,  by  which  mankind  can  be  tlie  authors  of  life, 
the  vitality  is  suspended  for  a  time.     The  spirit  flies  to  the  portal 


52  Abstract   Evil. 

for  its  exit.  It  returns  to  stay,  but  not  to  live  under  criminal 
repetitions  of  similar  acts.  The  source  of  life  is  dried  up.  In 
this  sin,  and  still  more  in  self-abuse,  we  are  "  dead  while  we 
live  "  —  a  living  death  at  the  core  of  life  !  Existence  becomes  a 
shame,  a  burden,  then  a  curse.  The  organ  of  vitativeness  so 
injured  by  this  abuse  has  the  same  relation  to  life  that  the  heart 
has  to  the  blood  or  the  lungs  to  the  atmosphere.  Life  perverted 
to  lust  is  an  outrage  as  positive  as  to  turn  the  blood  from  the 
heart  to  the  stomach,  or  the  air  from  the  lungs  to  the  heart. 
Excited  amativeness,  then,  is  a  mountain  of  darkness  and  death 
between  our  very  existence  and  its  fountain,  and  you  might  as 
well  expect  the  sun  to  warm  and  enlighten  the  earth  behind  an 
eclipse  of  the  moon.  Lust  is  an  iceberg  between  the  mind  and 
its  fountain  of  life.  But  here  we  make  the  fundamental  error 
when  we  consider  these  faculties  were  created  for  the  insane 
paroxysms  of  gratification  !  "^  *  Amativeness  in  repose  results 
in  health,  sanity  and  felicity ;  in  excitement,  in  disease,  imbecil- 
ity, impotency,  fatuity,  dementation,  idiocy, '  insanity  and 
death.  *  *  The  pores  of  the  skin  ooze  out  their  foetid  odors  ; 
then  perfumes  must  disguise  the  stench.  Through  the  same 
channel  come  all  artificials,  gewgaws,  ribbons,  flaunting  colors, 
pouting  manners,  sickly  sentimentalism,  etc.  But  the  moral 
powers  suffer  the  most  deadly  ruin  in  self-abuse.  It  terminates 
not  upon  the  body,  but  lights  upon  the  moral  powers,  which  have 
their  antagonisms  of  sin,  death,  hell,  and  devils  in  the  perverted 
animal  propensities  —  amativeness,  the  foundation  pillar.  Under 
this  pollution  and  conscious  shame,  hope  of  happiness  here  and 
hereafter  is  forfeited,  and  as  hope  departs  religious  gloom  and 
melancholy  are  the  natural  successors.  DesjDondency  and  despair 
people  the  imagination  with  phantoms,  ghosts,  demons,  and 
gorgons  dire.  Shut  out  from  communion  with  light,  purity,  and 
holiness,  they  are  in  "  fellowship  with  darkness,  "  haunted  visions, 
and  mysteries.  With  truth  and  faith  perverted,  a  disordered 
marvelousness  gluts  every  sense.  The  vacant  soul  roams  in  mid- 
night darkness,  awaiting  a  still  darker  i-ealra  and  more  horrid 
gloom  beyond  the  valley  of  death.  In  the  progress  of  this 
vice  veneration  suffers,  too  shameful  and  impure  to  face  man, 
how  can  he  face  God  ?  If  he  worships  the  divinity  at  all,  it  is  in 
his  own  temperature  of  icebergs  and  tartarian  agues.  That 
inextinguishable  divinity  in  the  efilux  of  his  moral  nature  flickers 
in  its  socket.     He  seeks  escape  from  his  misery  in  some   artificial 


Marriage  Civil,  not  Christian.  53 

device  of  theological  divination  of  man's  devising  ;  hides  his  face 
upon  some  anxious  seat,  or  under  the  curtain  of  some  revival. 
He  has  no  eyes  to  see  that  morality  which  saves  him  from  his 
sins.  He  gropes  into  the  lap  of  some  of  the  children  of  the 
mother  of  mysteries  (harlots)  to  be  saved  in  his  sins.  We 
should  have  the  most  clear  convictions  that  such  abuse  of  our- 
selves is  the  blackest  cloud  that  intervenes  between  our  souls  and 
the  temple  of  goodness  ;  that  while  in  this  sin  prayers  and 
churches  will  not  save  us.  *  *  *  Talk  about  educating  our- 
selves for  happiness  under  our  present  institutions  !  As  well 
plant  the  vegetable  before  the  sun  at  the  focus  of  a  burning  lens. 
Our  carnal  legislation  and  social  systems  of  inhumanity  and  lust 
are  galling  every  muscle,  sinew,  and  nerve  to  the  bone.  Hu- 
manity is  reeking  in  gore ;  groans,  tears,  blood,  weeping,  wail- 
ing and  gnashing  of  teeth  are  food  to  tlie  mind.  *  *  * 
Marriage  nearly  always  originates  in  lust ;  and  the  prevalent 
idea  that  it  gives  license  to  indulgence  is  a  bane  to  health  and 
morality.  One  upas  of  the  age  ;  and  until  the  mistaken  idea  of 
happiness  by  animal  gratification  is  cast  from  us,  as  an  obsolete 
dream,  we  cannot  understand  Christ's  adultery  of  the  heart !  Oh ! 
how  long  will  society  live  under  the  destructive,  putrefying  theory 
that  lust  may  be  conceived  without  sin  ! "  Echo  answers.  Oh  ! 
how  long  ?  Here,  again,  we  have  evidence  piled  on  evidence  from 
among  ourselves,  corroborative  of  what  I  have  said,  and,  not- 
withstanding 1  will  agree,  and  even  affirm,  that  marriage  and 
orderly  generation  are  the  true  and  best  conditions  for  the  natural 
man  on  the  animal  plane  of  life,  yet  it  can  form  no  part  of 
Christ's  kingdom.  It  belongs  exclusively  to  the  "  children  of 
this  world,"  but  not  to  Christ's  followers  and  children,  who  are 
not  of  this  world;  for  "the  children  of  this  world  marry  and  are 
given  in  marriage.  Those  (of  us)  who  shall  be  accounted  worthy 
to  obtain  that  world  and  the  resurrection  from  the  dead  neither 
marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  areas  the  angels  in  heaven  " 
(who  do  not  marry). — Luke  xx,  34.  It  follows,  then,  that  all 
true  Christians,  in  order  that  they  "  shall  be  accounted  w^orthy," 
must  not  marry.  We  should  be  more  consistent  than  Doctor 
Dwight,  who,  after  telling  us  that  marriage  nearly  always  orig- 
inates in  lust  (he  might  have  omitted  the  adverb  nearly),  turns 
and  tries  to  make  it  a  holy  institution,  and  thinks  that  under  it 
true  happiness  may  be  found.  Delusive  idea  !  Has  it  not  been 
tried  for  more  than  five  thousand  years  ?     "Where  on  the  wide 


54:  Absteact  Evil. 

earth  is  the  man  or  the  woman  who  has  found  it  ?  What  said 
the  wise  man  ?  "I  made  me  great  works  ;  I  builded  me  houses  ; 
I  planted  me  vineyards;  I  made  me  gardens  and  orchards,  and 
I  planted  trees  in  them  of  all  kinds  of  fruit.  I  made  me  pools  to 
water  therewith  the  wood  that  bringeth  forth  trees ;  I  got  me 
servants  and  maidens,  and  had  servants  born  in  my  house ;  also 
I  had  great  possessions,  of  great  and  small  cattle,  above  all  that 
were  in  Jerusalem  before  me  ;  I  had  gathered  me  also  silver  and 
gold,  and  peculiar  treasure  of  the  kings  of  the  provinces ;  I  got 
me  men-singers  and  women-singers,  and  the  delights  of  the  sons 
of  men,  as  musical  instruments  and  that  of  all  sorts.  I  was  great, 
and  increased  more  than  all  that  were  before  me  ;  *  *  and 
whatsoever  mine  eyes  desired  I  kept  not  from  them  ;  I  withheld 
not  my  heart  from  any  joy.  *  *  Then  I  looked  on  all  the 
works  my  hands  had  wrought,  and  on  the  labor  that  I  had  labored 
to  do ;  and  behold,  all  was  vanity,  and  a  vexation  of  spirit.  *  * 
Therefore,  I  hated  life,  because  the  work  that  is  wrought  under 
the  sun  is  grievous  unto  me." — Ecclesiastes  i,  4:to  12, 18.  Who, 
after  this,  can  have  courage  to  try  the  experiment  again  ?  So  far 
it  has  proved  an  utter  failure.  "  Why  cumbereth  it  the  ground?  " 
Doctor  Dwight  seems  not  to  understand  Christ's  adultery  of  the 
heart  himself.  Let  me  explain :  The  worldly  elements  are  :  — 
"  The  lust  of  the  flesh ;  the  lust  of  the  eye  ;  and  the  pride  of  life.'' 
The  conception  of  these  worldly  lusts,or  any  of  them,  in  the  mind, 
is  sin.  The  individual  chooses  to  think  on  them,  instead  of  his 
duty  to  God;  this  is  the  first  step  in  the  wrong  direction.  Then, 
when  the  mind  becomes  fixed  on  them,  this  is  sin  or  adultery  in 
the  heart ;  then  the  very  highest  part  of  our  nature  has  yielded. 
ISText,  the  mind  directs  the  eye  to  look  out  for  the  object  of  its 
carnal  desires.  All,  then,  that  is  wanting  is  the  opportunity  for 
its  consummation,  which,  of  course,  is  effected  at  the  earliest  con- 
venience. The  man  then  is  confessedly  a  "  poor  sinner  in  thought, 
word,  and  deed  !  "  But  he  stands  accountable,  because  he  cJiose 
to  think  upon  it ;  he  chose  to  fix  it  in  his  mind  ;  he  chose  to  look 
out  for  an  object ;  he  chose  to  consummate  it ;  and  he  chooses 
not  to  be  damned  for  it !  but  would  have  Christ  suffer  in  his 
stead  —  the  innocent  for  the  guilty  !  But  in  this  last,  the  culprit 
cannot  have  his  choice.  God  will  attend  to  this  in  due  time. 
He  cannot  shift  the  sin  he  chose  to  commit  on  the  shoulders  of 
another.     This  being  true  of  one  sin,  it  is  true  with  regard  to  all 


Individual  Responsebility.  55 

the  sins  of  a  man's  life,  either  of  thought,  word,  or  of  deed.  Is 
not  this  j)lain  ? 

If,  as  the  doctor  has  said,  marriage  originates  in  lust  (he  was  a 
married  luan  and  ought  to  know),  then  the  first  thought  to  ob- 
tain a  wife  is  sinful.  The  man  commits  the  heart's  adultery  be- 
fore he  obtains  the  means  for  its  manifestation.  And  here  is 
where  the  doctor  loses  sight  of  himself — the  sight  of  duty — the 
sight  of  Christ — the  sight  of  heaven — the  sight  of  God.  And 
just  so  it  is  with  all  who  may  choose  to  fix  their  minds  on  pleas- 
ures instead  of  their  duty  to  Him  to  whom  they  must  "  render 
an  account  for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  whether  they  be  good 
or  whether  they  be  evil."  But  the  doctor  is  to  be  pitied.  Being 
married,  he  was  in  a  dilemma,  and  had  to  take  one  of  the  two 
horns,  either  to  come  out  and  lead  an  entirely  pure  life,  after  the 
example  of  Christ,  and  hence  become  a  Shaker,  or  else  gloss  over 
the  marriage  state  and  stick  to  his  wife.  The  difiiculty,  it  seems, 
was :  "  He  had  married  a  wife,  and,  therefore,  he  could  not 
come."  Luke  xiv,  20.  That  woman  in  the  valley  of  Sorek 
was  too  hard  for  him.  After  slaying  his  thousands,  and  carrying 
off  the  gates  of  Gaza,  he  was  shorn  of  his  locks,  and  is  now 
grinding  in  the  prison-house  of  the  Philistines,  i^ay,  ever  since 
"  the  sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters  of  men,  that  they  were  fair, 
and  began  to  choose  for  themselves  "  (Gen.  vi,  2),  lust  and  nothing 
else  has  been  directing   this  matter.     Those  sons  of  God  took  it 

out  of  the  hands  of  God,  and  their  vile  progeny  " whose 

ignoble  blood  has  crept  through  scoundrels  ever  since  the  flood," 
have  kept  it  out,  and  so  man  stands  accountable  for  all  the  evils 
that  follow  in  its  train. 

Thus,  I  have  answered  the  query  why  we  do  not  deny  the  de- 
mands of  hunger  and  thirst  as  well  as  that  of  propagation,  still 
admitting  the  abuse  of  the  former.  Let  us  all  retire  to  our 
homes,  to  our  closets,  and  to  our  knees,  and  ask  God  for  strength 
to  enable  us  to  do  His  will. 

If  we  find  it  impossible  to  do  it  there,  then  return  to  our 
Father's  house,  where  strength  can  be  found,  "  for  in  our  Father's 
house  are  many  mansions." 


GOD'S  LOVE. 


In  my  remarks  concerning  the  love  of  God  in  the  soul,  I  did 
not  think  whether  it  would  be  understood  that  the  love  of  the 
individual  should  be  co-extensive  with  that  of  the  Creator,  or  not. 
It  may  very  rationally  be  affirmed  that  nothing  which  is  finite 
can  be  co-extensive  with  the  infinite — the  creature  with  the 
Creator.  It  does  seem  to  me  that  there  must  be  a  point  where 
the  wearied  thought  in  its  flight  must  stop  to  rest  and  return 
home.  But  this  partakes  too  much  of  the  speculative.  I  dislike 
to  get  into  water  so  deep  that  my  line  cannot  take  the  sounding. 
It  has  been  well  written  that  "  the  great  occasion  of  disputes  is 
that  of  men  extending  their  inquiries,  and  letting  their  thoughts 
go  beyond  their  capacity,  to  wander  into  those  depths  where  they 
can  find  no  sure  footing."     This  position  I  wish  to  avoid. 

The  admission  of  limited  thought  implies  limited  love,  and 
seems  disastrous,  as  the  advocates  of  this  claim  the  right  to  set 
the  limits  of  their  love,  most  of  whom  would  incline  to  make 
the  circle  very  narrow. 

The  good  Apostle  John  says:  "God  is  love,  and  he  that 
dwelleth  in  love  dwelleth  in  God  and  God  in  him."  I  John  iv, 
16.  This,  at  least,  leaves  no  room  for  hate.  This  declaration  of 
the  good  apostle  needs  some  explanation.  God  is  infinite  spirit. 
Love  is  an  essential  attribute,  as  well  as  power,  wisdom,  etc. 
"We  speak  as  correctly  when  we  say  God  is  power,  God  is 
wisdom,  God  is  truth,  as  when  we  say  God  is  love.  But  it  will 
not  do  to  apply  any  of  the  negatives  of  these  attributes  to  God — 
such  as  God  is  hate,  God  is  weakness,  God  is  folly,  falsehood,  etc. 
So  it  may  be  seen  that  all  the  apostle  meant  was,  that  if  we 
live  in  God's  attributes,  or  the  attribute  of  love,  we  live  in  Him 
and  He  in  us.  In  fact  love  is  an  attribute  so  prominent,  that  if 
we  are  in  its  possession,  we  can  do  no  violence  to  any  of  God's 
attributes ;  hence  the  apostle  said  truly  :  "  If  we  dwell  in  love 
(hate  having  no  part  in  us),  we  dwell  in  God,  and  God  in  us.  " 
We  will  emulate  God's  love,  if  we  have  His  love  in  the  soul; 


Self-Peeservation.  57 

that  is,  extend  our  love  to  all  mankind,  as  far  as  we  have  capacity, 
and,  if  our  capacity  is  unlimited,  then  we  should  equal  God  in 
lovine- :  but  if  it  is  limited,  then  love  to  the  extent  of  that  limit  — 

"  Grasp  the  whole  world  of  reason,   life,   and  sense, 
In  one  close  system  of  benevolence  ; 
Happiness  is  kinder,  in  wliate'er  degree, 
And  height  of  bliss,  but  height  of  charity. 
God  loves  from  whole  to  parts  —  but  human  soul 
Must  rise  from  individual  to  the  whole. 

Friend,    parent,  neighbor,  first  it  will  embrace, 
His  country  next,  and  next  the  human  race . 
"Wide  and  more  wide,  the  o'erflowings  of  the  mind 
Take  every  creature  in  of  every  kind.  " 

Such  are  the  souls  "  who  dwell  in  God  and  God  in  them.  " 

Those  professing  Clnnstians,  who  contend  for,  and  strive  to 
justify  themselves  in  partial  love,  argue  in  this  wise  :  They  say 
"  self-preservation  is  the  first  law  of  nature,  "  and  this  includes 
self-sustenance  in  every  sense  —  to  kill  rather  than  be  killed,  and 
to  cheat  rather  than  be  cheated  ;  and  seem  not  to  know  that  all  this 
is  contrary  to  the  teaching  and  life  of  Christ,  whom  they  pretend 
to  follow  ;  saying  also,  "who  can  love  a  mean  man  %  Besides,  they 
say,  it  is  impossible  to  love  any  thing  that  is  not  lovely  ;  that  love 
begets  love,  hate  begets  hate,  and  every  thing  begets  its  like  ;  and 
the  Apostle  Paul  gives  this  piece  of  sensible  and  good  advice,  viz. : 
"  If  any  provide  not  for  his  own,  and  especially  for  those  of  his 
own  house,  he  has  denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse  than  an  infidel.  " 
1  Tim.  V,  8.  This  was  sensible  enough  for  the  kind  of  people 
Paul  was  addressing  —  those  who  had  not  left  the  rudimental 
life  —  who  were  babes  in  Christ,  who  had  only  made  a  beginning 
in  the  gospel  work. 

I  admit,  that  while  men  continue  in  the  private,  worldly  rela- 
tions, they  are  yet  on  the  animal  plane,  and  their  loves  must  be 
necessarily  partial  and  selfish,  the  same  as  with  bird  and  beast ; 
consequently  theirs  is  not  God's  love,  but  animal  love.  But  all 
partiality  must  cease  when  we  come  out  of  that  condition  to 
Clirist,  and  enter  "  the  new  heavens  and  earth  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness." 

Paul  gave  different  counsel  to  the  more  advanced  :  "  Let  every 
one  please  his  neighbor  "  (instead  of  himself),  "  for  Christ  did  not 
please  himself."     Rom.  xv,  2.     Again :   "  Let  no  man  seek  his 


58  God's  Love. 

own,  but  his  neighbor's  good."  1  Cor.  x,  24.  Thus  we  have 
another  standard  by  which  to  test  our  Christianity.  If  we  can- 
not come  on  this  ground,  we  may  know  we  are  not  of  that  num- 
ber who  are  one  with  Christ,  one  with  God,  with  His  love  dwell- 
ing in  us.  "  Thou  Father  in  me  and  I  in  Thee  that  they  may 
also  be  one  in  us,  that  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  has  sent 
me."     John  xvii,  21. 

But,  I  am  asked :  "  Why  may  I  not  be  a  Christian  outside  of 
the  Shakers  as  well  as  among  them  ?  Why  cannot  I  cease  from 
propagation  and  live  above  the  rudiments  of  the  world,  lead  a 
Christian's  life,  and  be  numbered  with  the  redeemed,  as  well 
as  to  come  and  submit  to  your  discipline?"  I  will  answer: 
Why  cannot  a  man  get  a  good  education  without  going  to  school 
and  submitting  to  school  discipline  ?  Why  cannot  a  man  learn  a 
trade  without  binding  himself  to  service  and  obedience  for  a 
term  of  years  ?  Why  cannot  a  man  learn  the  art  of  war  without 
going  to  West  Point  and  first  becoming  a  mere  automaton  — 
without  being  obedient  to  the  letter  to  his  superiors,  and  without 
question  of  wliy  or  wherefore?  Wliy  cannot  he  learn  it  just  as 
well  at  home  with  his  wife  and  family  ?  All  would  say  at  once, 
a  man  entertaining  such  ideas  was  a  brainless  idiot.  Just  as  brain- 
less is  the  man  who  supposes  he  can  gain  his  salvation  and  the 
treasures  of  eternal  life  without  going  to  the  God-appointed 
place,  and  submitting  himself  in  child-like  obedience  to  the  God- 
appointed  agents,  and  be  instructed  in  that  which,  as  yet,  he 
knows  but  little  about. 

God  has  said.  He  has  placed  his  "  fire  in  Zion  and  furnace  in 
Jerusalem "  for  the  trial  and  purification  of  His  people.  We 
then  can  be  tried  and  purified  only  where  the  fire  and  furnace  are. 
Here  is  where  "  the  Lion  and  the  Lamb  shall  lie  down  together 
and  a  little  child  shall  lead  them"  —  (the  great  and  meek  ones  of 
the  earth) — Isa.  ii,  6.  "Suffer  little  children  (says  Christ)  to 
come  unto  me  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  Yerily  I  say  unto  you  whosoever  shall  not  receive  the 
Kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  he  shall  not  enter  therein." 
Mark  xi,  14,  15.  By  this  we  are  made  to  perceive  that  the  sacri- 
fice to  obtain  the  Kingdom  is  as  great  or  greater,  than  to  ob- 
tain any  thing  earthly,  and  must  of  necessity  be  so,  as  that  which 
is  to  be  obtained  is  worth  more  to  the  soul  than  all  worlds  and  all 
therein.  We  here  see  that  men  must  become  as  little  children. 
What  are  the  condition  and  qualities  of  little  children?     Are 


YiTAL  Questions.  59 

they  not  devoid  of  concupiscence,  sexual  and  worldly  lusts  ?  Are 
they  not  dependent  on  their  parents,  father  and  mother  ?  Obe- 
dient, simple,  pure?  Then,  if  tlie  Saviour  tells  the  trutli,  we 
may  all  know  just  how  we  have  to  become,  or  utterly  fail  to  en- 
ter the  Kingdom  of  God.  "  By  their  fruits  shall  ye  know 
them."  And  Christ  says,  "  an  evil  or  corrupt  tree  cannot  bring 
forth  good  fruit."  Others  may  take  issue  with  me,  and  ask,  what 
are  the  fruits  of  the  marriage  tree  ?  And  answer  that  cMldren 
are  tlie  fruits  of  mai-riage ;  and  Christ  says,  of  such  are  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  ;  and  what  constitutes  the  heavenly  Kingdom 
must  be  good,  and  the  declaration  of  the  Son  of  God  that  the 
fruit  is  good,  and  this  fruit  is  the  production  of  the  marriage 
tree,  is  proof  positive  tliat  the  marriage  tree  is  good,  or  else  it 
could  not  produce  this  good  fruit.  With  triumph  you  say,  here  's 
a  "  gordion  knot"  for  you!  Let  us  apply  the  sword  of  truth, 
and  see  whether  or  not  it  can  be  severed. 

The  sophistry  in  this  reasoning  consists  in  not  only  perverting 
the  meaning  of  the  Saviour,  but  wrongly  placing  the  fruits  of 
marriage.  It  should  not  be  on  the  child,  but  on  the  individuals 
who  form  the  marriage  relation.  What  kind  of  fruits  does  it 
produce  in  them  f  Does  it  produce  good  fruits  in  them  ?  Does 
it  produce  purity,  chastity,  holiness,  godliness,  and  love  for  one's 
neighbor?  Does  it  produce  in  them  the  state  of  the  little  child 
that  knows  no  lust  ?  If  not,  how  are  we  to  become  as  the  little 
child,  in  order  to  be  saved  ?  But  does  it  not  produce  the  reverse  of 
all  this?  Does  it  not  produce  impurity,  unholiness,  ungodliness,  and 
selfishness  ?  These  are  vital  questions.  I  affirm  that  under  it  no 
man  can  possibly  "  love  his  neighbor  as  himself,  and  do  unto  all 
mankind  as  he  would  have  them  do  unto  him,"  in  similar  circum- 
stances, without  himself  becoming  a  town  or  county  charge. 
That  relation  must  be  selfish.  But,  thanks  to  God,  it  can  be  done 
in  Christ' s  Kingdom.  But  further  :  If  innocent  children  prove 
marriage  to  be  an  incorrupt  tree,  they  also  prove  the  same  of 
whoredoms  and  the  vilest  incest ;  thus  the  gordion  knot  is 
severed. 

It  seems  that  there  is  nothing  on  the  broad  earth  that  man  will 
not  do  to  save  his  worldly  lusts.  To  him  heaven  would  be  hell 
without  them.  He  will  argue  for  them ;  swear  for  them ;  toil 
for  them ;  sweat  for  them ;  rise  up  early ;  sit  up  late ;  lie  for 
them ;  steal  for  them  ;  smile  for  them ;  weep  for  them ;  suffer 
for  them ;  fight,  bleed  and  die  for  them.     They  are  the  life  of 


60  God's  Love. 

the  world,  and  "  what  will  not  a  man  give  for  life  ? "  And 
although  clouds  of  witnesses  affirm  that  Christ  has  re-appeared 
and  established  His  church  upon  earth,  and  is  the  head  thereof, 
from  which  the  worldly  lusts  are  excluded,  yet  the  whole  world 
wanders  after  the  beast,  "  both  professor  and  profane,  and  will 
not  be  persuaded  to  renounce  them  for  happiness  and  heaven, 
although  hundreds  have  arisen  from  the  dead,  and  now  declare  to 
a  perishing  world  that  such  renunciation  is  the  only  possible  way 
to  obtain  it.  How  well  the  scriptures  are  verihed  which  say : 
' '  In  the  latter  times  there  shall  be  scoffers  and  mockers  walking 
after  their  own  lusts,  saying,  where  is  the  promise  of  His  coming? 
For  since  the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all  things  continue  as  they  were 
from  the  beginning  of  the  creation."  II  Pet.  iii,  4.  It  has  been 
and  still  is  the  nature  of  man,  to  take  his  own  way,  and  follow 
his  own  inclinations  ;  and  hence  the  whole  world,  in  a  moral 
point  of  view,  lies  prostrate,  mangled  and  bleeding  at  every  pore. 
And  all  this  the  consequence  of  each  acting  from  his  own  selfish 
impulses.  I  venture  to  affirm  that  there  is  no  man,  from  the 
king  on  his  throne  to  the  beggar  in  the  street,  who  would  not  be 
better,  spiritually,  if  he  were  willing  to  be  advised  in  all  moral 
action  by  another,  although  the  latter  might  be  intellectually  his 
inferior ;  because  all  men  are  liable,  when  acting  from  their  own 
desires,  to  be  led  astray  by  them,  instead  of  being  ruled  by  con- 
science, judgment,  and  reason.  Whereas,  they  should  coincide 
with  the  poet  — 

' '  What  conscience  dictates  to  be  done, 

Or  warns  me  not  to  do, 
This,  teach  me  more  than  hell  to  shun, 

That,  more  than  heaven  pursue." 

Our  friend  would  always  advise  us  from  his  conscience  and 
judgment;  and  hence  would  doubtless  cross  our  desires,  which 
would  be  a  benefit  to  us.  The  great  wisdom  of  God  is  displayed 
in  Christ's  church,  where  this  counsel  can  always  be  had.  Happy 
indeed  is  the  individual  who  avails  himself  or  herself  of  it,  and 
surrenders  entirely  to  its  control.  In  no  other  way  can  we  sur- 
render ourselves  to  Christ,  and  those  who  do  so  are  truly  the  ones 
who  can  lead  a  sinless  life.  For  the  moment  our  own  will,  or 
the  will  of  any  individual,  usurps  the  place  of  this  judgment, 
Christ  is  denied,  and  passion,  inclination  and  private  feeling 
warp  the  understanding  and  lead  the  soul  astray. 


God's  Agents.  61 

Jesus  Christ  himself  could  not  have  been  saved  in  doing  His 
own  will ;  but  as  the  unfolding  spirit  of  God  within  Him  made 
known  the  Father's  will,  He  had  to  deny  himself,  yield  His  own, 
and  obey  the  Father  or  else  be  lost.  Can  we  be  saved  any 
cheaper?  jSTot  at  all.  God,  through  this  faithful  agent,  and  His 
sub-agents,  has  established  His  kingdom  or  church  on  earth.  To 
receive  these  agents  is  to  receive  Christ,  and  God.  To  deny 
them  is  to  deny  Christ  and  God,  and  cut  off  our  prospect  of  sal- 
vation. Hence  in  doins'  his  own  will  no  soul  can  enter  the  king;- 
dom  of  heaven. 

Still,  with  a  modest  show  of  reason  I  may  be  asked :  What 
would  be  the  consequence  of  an  error  in  judgment  of  the  gov- 
erning power?  We  may  as  well  ask,  what  would  be  the  conse- 
quence of  an  error  in  the  judgment  of  Christ  himself.  If  God 
has  an  agent,  and  we  receive  the  agent,  we  then  do  what  God 
requires  of  us  —  certainly  He  cannot  condemn  us  for  doing  what 
He  requires  of  us  !  But  I  will  answer  the  question.  It  is  im- 
possible for  them  to  lead  you  into  moral  evil ;  because  it  is  always 
their  conscience  and  judgment  —  God  in  the  soul  —  that  directs, 
and  not  their  natural  desires  and  passional  nature.  The  greatest 
and  only  danger  is,  that  of  their  yielding  to  our  desires,  through 
sympathy,and  fearing  we  could  not  yet  bear  the  whole  truth.  Any 
one  could  direct  a  neighbor  to  his  advantage  morally,  even  though 
his  inferior  in  goodness ;  but  no  sinner  could  tell  him  how  to  be 
saved,  because  of  such  not  being  saved  from  sin.  How  much  more 
reliable,  then,  is  the  advice  from  one  who  gives  it  as  Christ  did, — 
by  example  more  than  by  words.  Coming  to  Zion,  then,  we 
cannot,  ^Vith  any  reason  or  consistency,  set  up  our  own  will  in 
contradistinction  to  the  judgment  there  established ;  but  must 
become  as  little  children,  and  learn  how  to  be  saved  from  all  sin. 
But  how  often  have  people  fallen  under  conviction  for  their  sins 
and  gone  to  their  minister  for  relief,  and  found  none  ;  because 
the  minister  himself  was  their  co-sinner,  and  himself  bound  to 
say  with  the  poet  Burns  — 

"  Yet,  O  Lord,  confess  I  must; 
At  times  Fm  fasli'd  wi'  fleshly  lust, 
And  sometimes,  too,  wi'  worldly  trust 

Vile  self  gets  in. 
But  tbou  remembers  we  are  dust 

DefiI'd  in  sin." 

This  is  all  the  priest  can  do  for  the  poor  sinner,   acknowledge 


62  God's  Love. 

himself  in  the  same  category  ;  but,  being  pressed  by  the  convicted 
applicant,  some  such  consolation  as  this  is  given  by  the  blind 
guide  :  "  My  dear  brother,  you  must  throw  yourself  in  confidence 
on  God's  mercy,  which  endureth  forever.  He  well  knows  our 
weaknesses,  temptations,  and  trials.  Lean  on  the  blessed  Jesus;' 
He  is  our  only  hope.  There  is  no  man  livetli  and  sinneth  not.' 
Believe  His  holy  word.  He  is  the  Almighty  God,  who  took  upon 
Him  our  sinful  nature  and  satisfied  His  Father  —  that  is,  satisfied 
Himself.  God,  by  this  very  means,  found  out  our  precise  condi- 
tion. The  great  God  became  man  for  tliis  very  purpose.  He 
was  God  and  He  was  man.  He  died  for  us,  and  '  bore  our  sins  in 
His  body  on  the  tree.'  Li  the  agonies  of  death  He  asked  His 
heavenly  Father  to  forgive  the  wicked  Jews,  and  you  know  the 
Father  would  do  whatever  the  Son  would  ask,  because  the  Son 
was  the  Father  Himself !"  etc.  The  applicant,  perceiving  some 
inconsistency,  begins  to  waver,  but  is  told  emphatically  not  to 
yield  to  doubts,  for  "  he  that  doubteth  is  damned  already." 
"  Great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness."  The  poor  sinner,  fearing 
worse  consequences,  brings  himself  to  the  sticking  point,  and  ex- 
claims, "  Lord,  I  believe !  " 

When  Christ  came  into  the  world  and  was  commissioned  to 
make  known  the  way  of  eternal  life  to  man,  we  are  told  that 
"  when  He  was  gone  forth  into  the  way,  there  came  one  running 
and  kneeling  to  Him,  saying :  "  Good  master,  what  shall  I  do  that 
I  may  inherit  eternal  life  ? "  Jesus  answered  him :  "  Thou 
knowest  the  commandments,  Do  not  commit  adultery,"  etc.  The 
young  man,  it  seems  from  the  statement,  was  a  moral  man ;  for 
he  had  kept  these  commandments  from  his  youth  up,  and,  sup- 
posing he  was  about  right,  he  wished  to  know  what  he  still 
lacked.  Ah,  how  we  hate  to  be  told  of  our  shortcomings !  Jesus 
said :  "If  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go  sell  that  thou  hast  and  give  to 
the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven ;  come,  take  up 
the  cross  and  follow  me." — Mark  x,  17,  21.  This  was  startling! 
The  young  man  had  no  idea  of  meeting  with  such  a  rebuff ;  had 
no  doubt  but  what  he  should  receive  "  faint  praise  "  for  his  moral 
honesty ;  but,  instead,  what  a  disappointment !  The  sword  of 
truth  penetrated  his  heart,  and  all  at  once  he  discovered  he  had 
done  little  or  nothing  toward  his  soul's  salvation.  Shocked  by 
the  startling  idea  of  giving  up  all,  he  was  filled  with  sorrow,  and 
slowly  arose  from  his  knees,and  turned  his  back  upon  the  Saviour 
and  walked  off,  as  many  of  us  would  to-day  were  Jesus  here  in 


Christian  Compensation.  63 

person  to  make  us  the  same  offer.  Here  the  treasures  of  heaven 
and  treasures  of  earth  were  placed  before  the  young  Jew,  and  we 
see  which  he  chose,  and  will  doubtless  say  he  was  foolish  thus  to 
reject  the  only  means  of  his  redemption  for  an  earthly  treasure 
which  must  so  soon  perish,  and  think  we  would  not  have  done  so. 
Christ  this  very  day  makes  the  same  overtui-es  to  every  one  of  us 
which  He  did  to  that  young  man,  and  He  will  receive  nothing 
short  of  a  strict  compliance  with  the  same  requisition.  ISTow  let 
us  see  how  many  will  do  as  the  young  man  then  did.  If  we  do 
as  he  did,  and  we  call  liim  foolish,  what  should  we  call  our- 
selves ? 

When  Christ  showed  that  all  had  to  be  forsaken  that  belongs 
to  this  world,  Peter  said  to  Him,  "  Lo,  we  have  foresaken  all,  and 
have  followed  thee,  what  shall  we  have  therefore  ?  "  Jesus  an- 
swered and  said:  "Yerily,  I  say  unto  you,  there  is  no  man  that  hath 
left  house,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father,  or  mother,  or  wife,  or 
children,  or  lands  for  my  sake  and  the  gospel's ;  but  he  shall  re- 
ceive an  hundred  fold  now  in  this  time,  houses  and  brethren  and 
sisters,  and  mothers  and  children,  and  lands,  with,  persecution,  and 
in  the  world  to  come  eternal  life."  Mark,  x,  30.  Here,  now, 
every  one  has  the  opportunity  given  him  to  "  show  his  faith." 
Christ  plainly  tells  us  what  has  to  be  forsaken  and  le/t  and  lost  to 
us,  and  what  is  to  be  gained  by  the  exchange.  Who  would  not 
rather  have  a  hundred  houses  than  one?  An  hundred  brothers 
and  sisters  than  half  a  dozen  ?  An  hundred  fathers  and  mothers 
than  one?  An  hundred  children,  with  a  hundred  acres  of  land 
than  one  child  and  one  acre  ?  These  are  all  easily  answered,  but 
here  comes  the  difficulty,  who  will  exchange  his  wife  for  perse- 
cution. Who  will  exchange  the  whole,  wife  included,  for  eternal 
life  in  the  world  to  come  ?  Mind,  we  cannot  get  it  without.  It 
is  a  fair  offfer.  Who  will  come  to  Christ  and  close  in  with  the 
terms  ?  We  will  never  get  it  any  cheaper  if  we  wait  till  dooms- 
day. Can  we  expect  to  get  it  cheaper  bye-  and-  bye,  persuad- 
ing Clirist  to  take  back  the  persecution  and  let  us  keep  the  wife  ? 
This  is  all  that  creates  any  difficulty  on  our  part  —  all  that  makes 
us  unwilling  to  exchange  earth  for  heaven  —  the  old  heavens  for 
the  new.  The  exchange  is  all  on  the  side  of  the  new  heavens  till 
we  come  to  the  wife.  It  seems  that  a  little  persecution  "is  not 
adequate  payment  for  the  wife."  So  men  act,  and  they  might  as 
well  at  once  confess,  that  they  had  much  rather  have  one  cabin, 
one  acre  of  land,  and  one  wife,  than  to  become  heir  to  all  the 


64  God's  Love. 

heavenly  promises,  the  wife  being  excluded  !  Such  is  the  madness 
and  folly  of  men  and  the  power  of  lust  over  them. 

The  priest  is  as  deep  in  this  mire  as  the  people,  the  surpliced 
minister  as  the  layman  ;  and  they  strive  to  mislead  their  congrega- 
tions by  telling  them  that  Christ  by  using  the  term  "  left "  did 
not  mean  to  leave  the  partial  relation  for  the  hundredfold.  He 
only  meant  to  leave  them  in  the  affections,  or  out  of  the  affec- 
tions, and  love  Him  more  than  these  other  things ;  as  though 
Christ  would  be  well  satisfied  if  He  could  get  only  a  little  the 
larger  portion  of  the  love  and  affections,  allowing  the  balance  to 
go  to  the  wife  and  children.  But  Christ  shows  that  a  divided 
love  will  not  answer.  He  requires  us  to  "  love  the  Lord  with  all 
the  heart,  with  all  the  mind,  with  all  the  might,  and  all  the 
strength."  If  we  do  this,  how  much  is  left  for  wife  or  children, 
or  other  partial  objects.  Absolutely  none.  But  let  any  one  under- 
take to  divide  it,  and  see  if  he  does  not  find  the  poet's  words  true : 

"I  waste  the  matin  lamp  in  sighs  for  thee; 
Tliy  image  steals  between  my  God  and  me.  " 

The  buffoon  in  the  street  only  portrays  what  is  in  the  minister's 
heart,  when  he  jocundly  sings  : 

"A  little  wife  well  willed, 
A  little  house  well  filled, 
A  little  land  well  tilled, 
Is  heaven  enough  for  me.  " 

If  Christ  had  only  promised  an  hundred  wives  instead  of  one 
as  he  did  an  hundredfold  of  other  things  that  had  to  be  forsaken, 
the  exchange  would  have  gone  on  successfully,  and  there  would 
not  have  been  the  first  ditiiculty  in  the  way.  So  it  is  plain  that  it  is 
the  desire  for  a  husband  or  wife,  and  partial  goods  that  unmans  the 
man  —  makes  him  a  sinner  instead  of  a  saint  —  takes  him  to  hell 
instead  of  heaven.  But  when  in  the  end  he  finds  that  all  his 
wife-seeking,  and  woman-loving,  and  lust-indulging  not  only  lose 
their  relish,  and  fail  to  give  him  happiness,  but  leave  him  vacant, 
lonely,  desolate,  weary,  Christless,  Godless,  and  midnight  dark- 
ness, he  will  close  in  with  the  song  of  the  poet . 

"  Though  wisdom  often  sought  me, 
I  scorn'd  the  lore  she  brouglit  me ; 

My  ouly  books 

Were  woman's  looks, 
And  folly's  all  they've  tauglit  me." 


SCRIPTURE  ANALYSIS  -  PRE-EXISTENCE 
OF  CHRIST. 


There  are  two  apothegms,  the  truth  of  which,  I  doubt  not,  will 
be  conceded  by  all  thinking  men. 

First.  All  mankind  are  blinded  bj  passion  in  proportion  to  its 
indulgence. 

Secondly.  All  are  enabled  to  perceive  more  clearly  the  truths, 
or  principles,  that  antagonize  with  the  passions,  in  the  propor- 
tion tliat  they  may  subdue  or  deny  the  passional  efflux.  Let  me 
explain. 

Love  and  hatred,  truth  and  falsehood,  flesh  and  spirit,  antagon- 
ize. So  far  as  we  ^aeld  to  the  spirit  of  hatred,  we  lose  the  pos- 
session and  sight  of  love.  When  we  allow  ourselves  to  run  into 
falsity,  we  lose  sight  of  truth.  To  the  extent  we  indulge  the 
flesh  and  allow  its  dominion  over  us,  just  that  far  Ave  lose  sight 
of  the  spirit,  and  are  shorn  of  its  benign  influences. 

It  so  happens  that  mankind  have  allowed  the  lower  passions  to 
have  the  ascendancy  over  them,  some  ignorantly,  others  willfully, 
insomuch  that  they  have  become  almost  wholly  blinded  to  spirit- 
ual truth,  and  go  groping  alDout  like  blind  men  under  a  noonday 
sun  ;  and  the  sole  reason  is,  tliat  they  have  allowed  their  lower 
passions,  instead  of  the  spirit  of  God  in  their  consciences,  to 
govern  them.  Whilst  under  the  influence  of  hatred  toward  any 
person  or  thing,  it  is  impossible  that  we  should  love  that  person 
or  thing.  Lord  Bacon's  paradox  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 
He  says  (paradox  Ko.  10) :  ^  The  Christian  loves  all  men  as 
himself,  and  yet  hates  some  men  with  a  perfect  hatred."  Xow, 
I  differ  with  the  learned  man.  It  is  impossible  for  a  man  to  love 
all,  and  at  the  same  time  to  hate  any  part  of  all ;  for  the  moment 
he  acknowledges  that  he  hates  a  part,  he  not  only  contravenes 
the  assertion  that  he  loves  all,  and  renders  it  nugatory,  but 
makes  it  palpably  false,  and,  false  as  it  is,  it  is  nevertheless  in 
perfect  keeping  with  all  his  paradoxes,  numbering  34  ;  and  not 
only  so,  but  it  is  very  similar  to  much  that  is  said  to  be  believed 
9 


66  ScKii'TURE  Analysis. 

by  tlie  professing  world.  This  is  equal  to  saying  he  can  cause 
"  the  same  thing  to  be  and  not  to  be  at  the  same  time,"  which 
Locke  says  is  impossible  with  God. 

One  of  two  things  mnst  be  true  in  this  case  of  the  Baconian 
Christian  :  Either  the  men  he  hates  with  a  perfect  hatred  are 
not  a  part  of  the  all  men  whom  he  loves,  or  else  he  must  hate 
himself  with  a  perfect  hatred  in  order  to  enable  him  to  love  all 
men  as  himself.  If  he  hates  himself  with  a  perfect  hatred,  and 
then  loves  all  men  as  himself,  he  then  not  only  hates  some  men 
with  a  perfect  hatred,  but  he  hates  all  men  with  a  perfect  hatred, 
which  makes  him  a  devil  instead  of  a  Christian.  So  the  Reverend 
Lord  only  mistook  the  title ;  but  a  rather  serious  blunder  taking 
a  devil  for  a  saint !  But  in  this  he  has  proven  that  hate  can  have 
no  part  in  the  Christian.  Likewise,  the  "  flesh  and  the  spirit 
being  contrary  the  one  to  the  other,"  we  cannot  be  in  possession 
of  both  at  the  same  time,  nor  can  we  alternate  with  them  and  be 
Christians  ;  yet  this  is  the  case  with  the  professing  world  living 
in  the  flesh,  claiming  to  be  in  the  spirit,  and  wishing  to  be  called 
Christians  or  followers  of  Christ,  who,  though  tempted,  did  not 
live  in  the  flesh.  And  as  they  have  no  works  by  which  to  show 
forth  their  right  to  the  title,  they  come  with  the  Bible  as  their 
voucher,  and  attempt  to  prove  by  it  that  they  are  what  they  are 
not,  and  expound  the  Bible  to  make  it  coincide  with  their  ideas 
of  what  constitutes  a  true  Christian. 

If  men  would  honestly  take  the  Bible  and  search  for  truth,  in- 
stead of  searching  to  find  support  for  some  creed,  or  fanciful 
notion  of  their  own  creation,  there  would  not  be  such  a  diversity 
of  opinion  as  at  present  exists.  But,  ' '  the  natural  man  (the  man 
who  lives  in  the  earthly  order,  professor  or  profane)  receiveth 
not  the  things  of  the  spirit  of  God ;  for  they  are  foolishness  to 
him  ;  neither  can  he  know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually  dis- 
cerned."—  1  Cor,  ii,  14.  Hence,  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim  and  all 
the  Councils  from  that  day  to  this.  Math  all  the  Kings,  Popes, 
Bishops,  Cardinals,  and  laymen,  and  all  commentators  on  the 
Bible  text,  being  earthly  and  carnal  men,  have  failed  to  unite  on 
the  plainest  truths  which  are  recorded  in  the  good  book.  They 
have  been  for  more  than  a  thousand  years,  with  all  their  exten- 
sive learning  and  research,  "  darkening  counsel  without  (spiritual) 
knowledge,"  and  instead  of  upholding  truth,  have  been  blinding- 
each  other,  and  those  of  the  multitude,  sometimes  ignorantly,  but 
often  for  sinister  purposes,  seeking  to  maintain  and  support  their 


False  Teachings.  67 

own  peculiar  creeds  and  dogmas,  at  the  expense  of  truth,  until 
they  have  made  infidels  almost  without  number. 

It  was  well  said :  "  Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God  ? " 
It  may  be  asked :  If  not  by  searching,  how  shall  we  find  God  ? 
I  answer  by  obedience  to  the  light  within  • —  to  the  dictates  of 
"God  within  the  mind."  By  so  doing,  step  by  step,  we  will 
increase  in  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  "  find  liim  out  to  perfec- 
tion ; "  and  finally  "  have  our  lives  hid  with  Christ  in  God."  Col. 
iii,  3.  Jesus  said :  "  I  thank  thee.  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and 
earth,  because  Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  pru- 
dent, and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes.  Even  so,  Father,  for  so 
it  seemed  good  in  thy  sight."     Matt,  xi,  25,  26. 

The  wiseacres  of  this  so-called  Christian  world  have  not  only 
failed  to  find  God  for  themselves  and  their  flocks,  but  have 
placed  themselves  in  the  condition  of  the  Pharisees  who  Avere 
always  scraping  the  outside  of  the  platter ;  of  whom  Christ  said : 
"  Woe  unto  you  scribes  and  Pharisees  —  hypocrites  !  for  ye  com- 
pass sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte,  and  when  ]ie  is  made  ye 
make  him  twofold  more  the  cliild  of  hell  than  yourselves." 
Matt,  xxiii,  15.  This  will  seem  a  heavy  charge  against  those  who 
are  honestly  (?)  trying  to  benefit  the  race,  and  it  may  be  asked : 
How  is  it  they  make  hiiu  the  child  of  hell?  I  will  answer: 
because  they  lead  oif  from  the  only  true  source,  thus  directing 
souls  in  the  wrong  road,  in  which  the  further  they  travel  the 
more  they  are  separated  from  God ;  and  they  acknowledge  them- 
selves sinners,  which  is  true,  and  that  they  cannot  live  free  from 
sin  in  this  life,  which  is  false.  Thus  they  not  only  lead  them 
into  untruth,  but  make  them  feel  justification  in  sin,  as  it  were 
giving  them  license  to  sin ;  and  every  one  they  commit  only  adds 
to  the  Alps  which  are  already  between  tliem  and  God.  They 
make  them  believe,  tliat  notwithstanding  their  "  sins  are  as  scar- 
let, Christ's  righteousness  will  be  imputed  to  them.  "  Thus,  with 
their  sanction  and  support,  the  flocks  go  on  sinning,  "  believing 
a  lie  that  they  may  be  damned."     This  is  reason  enough. 

Before  I  proceed  to  the  analysis  of  the  scriptures,  which  are 
believed  to  declare  the  pre-existence  and  supreme  Godship  of 
Christ,  I  will,  for  the  benefit  of  the  young  student,  make  a  brief 
statement  of  the  different  kinds  of  reading  he  must  encounter 
and  consider,  and  of  which  the  Bible  is  chiefly  composed ;  and  if 
he  comes  to  the  task  unbiased  by  creed,  his  studies  will  be  ren- 


68  Scripture  Analysis 

dered  comparatively  easy.     It  may  be  summed  up  under  the  fol- 
lowing heads : 

I.  History.  —  Relation  of  past  events  or  facts. 

II.  Metaphor.  —  Words  used  with  other  meanings  besides  the 
ones  originally  affixed  to  them,  such  as  head  of  a  person  or 
church ;  hodij  of  a  person,  or  Ijody  of  the  church  ;  god,  angel, 
serpent,  vulture,  eagle,  sun,  moon,  stars,  lion,  lamb,  bear,  fox, 
dog,  and  other  things ;  beasts  and  fowls,  applied  to  man,  which 
are  not  uncommon  throughout  tlie  Bible.  These  should  rarely  be 
taken  literally  —  only  Avhere  the  sense  is  unequivocal  and  plain  ; 
otherwise  reference  is  had  metaphorically  to  man,  which  I  shall 
hereafter  more  clearly  exhibit. 

III.  Allegory.  —  Continued  metaphor. 

lY.  Emblem.  —  Corporeal  objects  standing  for  moral  prop- 
erties ;  as  the  Dove  is  an  emblem  of  meekness. 

V.  Type.  —  One  object  made  to  represent  another  mystically. 

YI.  Inspirational.  —  Things  supernaturally  induced. 

YII.  Devotional.  —  Duties  to  God.     Acts  of  worship, 

YIII.  Prophetical.  —  Foretelling  future  events. 

IX.  Doctrinal.  —  Positive  teaching  —  true  or  false. 

X.  Theological.  —  The  science  of  Divine  things. 

These,  with  the  addition  of  figure^  which  is  applicable  to  all 
the  rest,  comprehend  the  principal  points  of  study.  The  whole 
book,  the  historical  as  well  as  other  parts,  abounds  in  metaphor 
and  allegory,  but  from  the  days  of  the  Florentine  down  to  the 
honest  Bishop  Colenso,  the  metaphor  of  its  history  has  been 
ignored  to  the  great  disparagement  of  the  whole  Book  —  some 
of  which  I  will  notice  in  a  subsequent  discourse.  But  when  it 
is  known  that  the  whole  relates  to  man  and  the  works  of  God  in 
him,  and  loitli  him,  for  his  progress,  elevation,  and  happiness, 
and  not  to  blind  him  by  a  mysterious  reference  to  foreign  angels, 
foreign  bodies,  foreign  beings,  a  foreign  God,  and  natural  beasts, 
birds,  reptiles,  etc.,  die  difficulties  of  understanding  it,  fixing  and 
analyzing  the  parts,  will  be  greatly  lessened,  and,  by  keeping  this 
in  mind,  the  student  will  generally  be  led  to  the  true  exegesis. 
But  in  no  case  should  one  explanation  neutralize  another.  Our 
reason  must  decide  when  it  is  metaphor,  and  when  it   is  not. 


Revelation  Subject  to  Reason.  69 

"When  reason  revolts  at  the  literal ization,  M^e  may  generally  know 
that  it,  figuratively,  relates  to  man.  Locke  says :  "  He  that 
believes  without  having  any  reason  for  believing,  may  be  in  love 
with  his  own  fancies,  but  neither  seeks  truth  as  he  ought,  nor 
pays  the  obedience  clue  to  his  Maker,  who  would  have  him  use 
those  discerning  faculties  He  has  given  him  to  keep  him  out  of 
mistake  and  error.     *     *     * 

True  light  in  the  mind  can  be  nothing  else  but  the  evidence 
of  the  truth  of  any  proposition  ;  and  if  it  is  not  a  self-evident 
proposition,  all  the  light  it  can  have  is  from  the  validity  of  the 
proofs  upon  which  it  is  received.  *  *  *  If  reason  must  not 
examine  the  truth  of  revelation  or  persuasion  by  something 
extrinsical  to  the  persuasions  themselves,  inspirations  and  delu- 
sions, trutli  and  falsehood,  will  have  the  same  measure,  and  will 
not  be  possible  to  be  distinguished.  "  But  to  the  texts.  As  an 
evidence  that  there  were  "  sons  and  daughters  of  God  "  existing 
somewhere  in  space  before  Universe  was  made,  we  are  referred 
to  the  38th  and  39th  Chapters  of  Job.  These  chapters  are 
among  the  most  beautiful  and  well-written  allegories  in  the 
book,  and  have  no  reference  to  a  period  previous  to  the  creation 
of  the  visible  universe.  The  visible  and  material  earth,  sea.  etc., 
are  used  while  the  entire  reference  is  to  man  and  the  old  earth 
and  heavens,  that  are  to  pass  away.  (What  I  mean  by  the  old 
earth  and  heavens,  is  the  work  of  God  in  and  with  man  anterior 
to  the  first  Christian  dispensation,  also  the  condition  of  all  those 
who  live  in  the  heavens  and  earth  that  man  lived  in  then.) 
Especial  reference  is  had  to  the  texts  which  read :  "  where  wast 
thou  when  I  laid  the  foundation  of  the  earth  ?  declare  if  thou 
hast  understanding.  Who  hath  laid  the  measure  thereof,  if  thou 
knowest  ?  Or  who  hath  stretched  the  line  npon  it  ?  Wliereupon 
are  the  foundations  thereof  fastened?  Or  who  laid  the  corner 
stones  thereof,  when  the  morning  stars  sang  together,  and  all  the 
sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy  ? "  Now  consider :  "  Who  is  this  that 
darkeneth  counsel  by  words  without  knowledge  ?  "  Who  can 
conceive  of  pillars,  and  corner  stones,  and  foundations  laid  for 
earth  or  moon  ?  Where  is  the  way  where  the  light  dwelleth  ? 
What  earth  were  the  wicked  shaken  out  of  ?  What  stars  sane: 
together,  and  what  sons  shouted  for  joy  ?  What  light  from  the 
wicked  withholden  ?  What  wicked  ?  What  high  arm  broken  ? 
What  gates  of  death  opened  ?  What  doors  the  shadow  of  death  ? 
What  paths  to  the  house  of  darkness  ?  Who  were  the  bottles 


TO  Scripture  Analysis. 

of  this  "  old  heaven  "  that  contained  drops  of  dew,  or  water  to 
moisten  the  clods,  and  what  clods,  of  the  old  earth  ?  Or  to  melt 
the  stony  heart  ?  Were  all  these  questions  now  asked  with  regard 
to  the  present  existing  churches,  there  are  few  so  4ull  as  not  to 
be  able  to  answer  them  correctly.  Then,  why  not  apply  them  in 
the  same  manner  to  the  order  of  God  in  the  old  heavens  and 
earth  ?  It  is  easily  done.  These  are  allegories,  and  refer  to  man 
in  the  old  heavens,  at  which  time  there  were  veritable  sons  and 
daughters  "  to  sing  and  shout  for  joy  • '  for  the  order  of  God 
then  established  with  its  pillars  and  corner  stones,  as  the  new 
earth  and  heavens  are  now  likewise  established,  which  are  the 
antitype  of  the  old.  We  need  not  go  to  the  moon,  nor  the  stellar 
heavens,  nor  refer  to  our  globe,  for  an  explanation  of  any  part  of 
it.  The  metaphor  is  very  common  in  the  language  of  our  own 
time.  To  speak  of  persons  being  pillars  of  the  church,  stars  of 
the  first  magnitude,  lion  of  the  day,  etc.,  is  common.  If  it  is 
necessary  to  use  such  metaphors  now,  with  the  profusion  and 
richness  of  the  English  tongue,  how  much  more  nmst  it  have 
been  necessary  in  the  infancy  and  great  poverty  of  language  that 
existed  then,  in  the  very  days  of  sign  and  symbol,  when  the  first 
characters  of  inspiration  were  written  on  scraps  of  parchment  on 
leaves,  and  the  inner  bark  of  trees  ?  All  commentators  on  the 
Bible  text  have  not  heretefore  given  half  enough  attention  to  its 
historical  metaphor ;  and  any,  who  persistently  cling  to  the 
literalization  of  the  chapters  noticed,  are  as  simple  as  the  woman, 
who  insisted  that  the  earth  was  flat  and  stood  on  a  pillar  of  rock, 
and  upon  being  asked  what  the  pillar  rested  on,  replied  :  "  O,  it's 
rock  all  the  way  down.  " 

Secondly.  "  Moreover,  brethren,  our  fathers  were  all  baptized 
unto  Moses  in  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea,  and  did  all  eat  of  the 
same  spiritual  meat,  and  did  drink  of  the  same  spiritual  drink  ; 
for  they  drank  of  that  spiritual  Rock  that  followed  them,  and 
that  Rock  was  Christ." — I  Cor.  x,  14. 

These  texts  are  easily  understood  without  any  reference  to  the 
Godship,  or  pre-existence  of  Christ.  To  be  baptized  unto  Moses, 
was  to  be  baptized  into  the  spirit  of  the  Law  administered  by  him, 
just  as  Christ^s  disciples  had  to  be  "  baptized  unto  His  death, 
etc."  The  spiritual  meat  and  drink  were  the  spirit  and  the  life 
of  the  work  He  daily  administered.  The  same  as  to  eat  the  flesh 
and  drink  the  blood  of  Christ  is  to  receive  His  word  and  doctrine 
in  order  to  have  His  life  in  us.     As  Moses  was  the  God-anointed 


Attributes  of  Deity,  Tl 

and  appointed  agent  in  the  old  heavens,  this  food  came  from 
him ;  he  was  that  Rock,  and  therefore  the  Christ  of  the  law  dis- 
pensation. In  fact  this  positively  denies  the  pre-existence  of  the 
Christ  of  the  new  heavens,  because  Moses  was  the  type  of  the 
latter,  and  the  type  must  precede  the  anti-ty^^e  ;  whereas,  if 
the  Christ  of  the  regenerative  order  had  existed  previous  to 
Moses,  that  would  destroy  his  typeship. 

Thirdly.  "  Christ  was  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of 
God."  It  is  asked  if  these  were  Christ  Jesus  %  I  answer  affirm- 
atively. Power  and  wisdom  are  attributes  of  Deity.  Jesus  did 
or  did  not  possess  them.  If  he  did  not,  he  was  not  the  Christ ; 
if  he  did,  he  was  the  Christ.  He  showed  forth  God's  power  in 
the  works  he  wrought,  and  his  wisdom  in  all  he  did  and  said. 
He  was,  therefore,  the  Christ — a  partaker  of  the  divine  nature, 
of  which,  also,  each  and  all  of  his  followers  must  be  partakers. — 
II  Pet.  i,  4. 

Fourthly.  "  But  thou  Bethlehem  Ephratah,  though  thou  be  little 
among  the  thousands  of  Judah,  yet  out  of  thee  shall  he  come 
forth  to  me,  who  is  to  be  ruler  in  Israel,  whose  goings  forth  have 
been  from  old,  from  everlasting." —  Micali  v,  2.  I  see  nothing 
in  this  text  declarative  of  the  Supreme  Godship  of  Christ  or  of 
his  pre-existence.  In  the  first  place  it  says  that  he  who  is  to  be 
ruler  in  Israel  shall  come  out  of  Bethlehem  (I  say  this  with  the 
knowledge  that  the  best  critics  say  he  was  born  in  Nazareth) ; 
secondly,  the  coming  forth  into  existence  is  future  ;  thirdly,  when 
that  future  time  arrived  a  child  was  born  named  Jesus,  who 
claimed  to  be  the  very  ruler  spoken  of  by  the  prophet.  This 
text  is  quoted  in  Matthew  ii,  3,  where  the  word ,  everlasting  is 
omitted.  But  if  it  is  insisted  on,  I  will  remark  that  the  term 
"  everlasting  "  signifies  eternity,  past  and  future.  So  that  if  his 
goings  forth  were  from  the  infinite  past,  the  Supreme  must  have 
been  meant,  who  could  not  have  come  forth  from  Bethlehem  only 
in  the  subordinate  sense,  for  he  (the  Supreme)  existed  there 
before  Bethlehem  did.  But  it  is  insisted  that  the  Infinite  Being, 
in  his  humanity,  came  forth  from  Bethlehem.  This  may  be  ad- 
mitted with  the  following  explanation :  God,  who  was  from 
everlasting,  was  in  Christ  Jesus,  who,  it  is  said,  came  out  of 
Bethlehem.  But  this  does  not  make  Christ  Jesus  the  Supreme, 
nor  affirm  his  pre-existencco  Again :  If  we  notice  the  context 
Ave  will  find  that  the  prophecy  had  reference  to  a  man.  "  And 
this  man  shall  be  the  peace  when    the  Assyrian  shall  come." 


72  SCKIPTURE    AiNTALYSIS. 

V^erse  three,  speaks  of  his  having  brethren  :  "  Then  the  remnant 
of  his  brethren  shall  return,  etc."  It  would  not  be  sensible  to 
say  that  God  the  Supreme  was  a  man,  and  liad  brethren  to  re- 
turn. For  further  proof  I  would  cite  the  student  to  John  vii, 
42  :  "•'  Ilatli  not  the  scripture  said  that  Christ  should  come  out 
of  the  seed  of  David.,  and  out  of  the  town  of  Bethlehem,  where 
David  was  ? "  It  is  conclusive  that  if  Christ  was  to  come  of  the 
seed  of  David,  he  could  not  have  come  from  everlasting,  for 
David  nor  of  "  his  seed  were  from  everlasting.  Again,  if  he 
came  from  David's  seed,  he  could  not  have  existed  prior  to 
David.     So  pre-existence  is  flatly  denied. 

Fifthly.  "  After  me  cometh  a  man  which  is  preferred  before 
"me,  for  he  was  before  me." — John  i,  30.  It  is  only  necessary  to 
notice  here  that  it  was  a  man  spoken  of  as  coming  cfter  him. 
Jesus  was  that  man  coming  after  John,  who  ^va.&  j^ref erred  before 
him  ;  for  he  was  (chosen  to  be)  before  him,  and  is  before  him  (in 
"  the  gift  of  God).  " 

Sixthly.  "  A  body  hast  thou  prepared  me,  "  does  not  mean 
either  Mary's  body,  nor  Jesus'  personal  body.  The  prepared 
body  was  the  body  composed  of  those  who  received  him  —  "  For 
his  body's  sake,  which  is  the  Church, "  —  Col.  1,  26.  The 
Gentiles  should  be  fellow-heirs  of  the  same  hody,  for  the  per- 
fecting of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  edify- 
ing of  the  hody  of  Christ  ;  the  whole  hody  fitly  joined  together. 
Saviour  of  the  body — Eph.  iii,  6  ;  iv,  12,  16  ;  v,  23.  But  now  hath 
God  set  the  members,  every  one  of  them,  in  the  body  as  it  hath 
pleased  him.  There  is  no  schism  in  the  body,  but  the  members 
should  have  the  same  care  one  for  another.  JYoio  ye  are  the  hody 
of  Christ  (which  God  has  prepared  for  him,  for  the  indwelling 
of  his  holy  spirit)  and  the  members  in  particular.  —  1  Cor.  xii, 
25,  27. 

Seventhly.  The  first  T/ian  is  of  the  earth,  earthy  ;  the  second 
7nan  is  the  Lord  from  heaven.  —  I.  Cor.  xv,  47.  It  will  be 
perceived  that  it  is  man  spoken  of  as  being  the  Lord  from 
Heaven  —  not  the  supreme,  nor  some  foreign  spirit,  but  the 
second  m.a?i  —  the  spiritual  Tnan  Christ  Jesus,  in  contra- 
distinction to  the  first  earthly  man  Adam.  This  spiritual  man 
was  Lord  in  the  finite,  dependent,  and  subordinate  sense.  To 
come  from,  or  go  to  heaven  or  hell,  has  no  respect  to  altitude, 
nor  latitude.  To  ascend  into  heaven  is  to  rise,  as  Christ  did, 
above  earthly  things  and   conditions.     To  descend  to  hell  is   to 


A  Spiritual  and  Natural  Reconciliation.  73 

sink  into  evil  habits  and  practices,  the  bottomless  pit  of  self- 
sought  pleasures,  that  render  us  miserable.  Thus  our  hell  or 
heaven  is  made  within  us.  To  be  sent  from  God  or  heaven,  is  to 
be  commissioned  or  appointed  by  Him  to  communicate  His  will 
or  heavenly  tidings  to  man.  ^ "  As  is  the  heavenly,  such  also  are 
they  that  are  heavenly.  " 

Eighthly.  "  If  David  then  called  him  Lord,  how  is  he  his 
son  ?  "  —  Matt,  xxii,  -iS.  The  reason  the  Pharisees  could  not 
answer,  was  because  they  were  carnal  men,  and  knew  nothing 
about  the  things  of  the  spirit.  The  learned  of  this  day  seem  to 
be  equally  in  the  dark  with  the  Pharisee — "carnal  and  sold 
under  sin  "  of  their  own  confessing.  ~^o  man  in  "  that  crowd  " 
was  able  to  answer  him ;  but  had  one  said:  "  Thou  art  David's 
son  by  generation.,  but  the  son  of  God  and  David's  Loi^d  by 
regeneration,  "  Jesus  would  certainly  have  responded  —  thou 
hast  answered  truly. 

Ninthly.  "  I  am  the  root  and  offspring  of  David.  "  —  Rev. 
xxii,  16.  This,  as  with  all  the  rest  we  have  quoted,  fails  to 
convey  to  my  mind  an  idea  of  the  Godship  of  Christ  or  his 
pre-existence.  It  is  thought  that  Christ  could  not  have  been  the 
root  of  David  v;'\\\\Qiw.i  jpreceding  him.  He  could  not  have  been 
the  offspring  of  David  without  succeeding  him.  This  proves  at 
once  that  Christ  was  not  the  Supreme.  It  is  impossible  that  the 
Supreme  could  have  been  the  offspring  of  David,  in  any  sense. 
He,  who  is  infinite  in  every  thing  and  finite  in  nothing,  and  to 
whom  nothing  can  be  added,  and  froin  whom  nothing  can  be 
subtracted.  But  the  text  is  easily  reconciled  in  both  its  parts. 
Christ  preceded  David  in  the  spiritual  order ;  He  succeeded  in 
the  natural  order.  He  was  therefore  the  root  of  David  by 
regeneration,  and  the  offspring  of  David  by  generation.  In 
accordance  with  this  the  Prophet  says  :  "'  And  there  shall  come 
forth  a  rod  out  of  the  stem  of  Jesse,  and  a  branch  shall  grow  out 
of  his  roots,  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  rest  upon  him,  the 
spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  the  spirit  of  counsel  and 
might,  the  spirit  of  knowledge  and  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and 
shall  make  him  quick  of  understanding. "  —  Isa.  xi,  1  to  6. 
Thus  we  must  perceive  it  could  not  have  been  the  Supreme  who 
had  the  fear  of  himself  resting  upon  himself  in  order  to  make 
himself  quick  of  understanding.  Also,  the  coming  of  Christ, 
this  Branch,  from  the  root  of  Jesse,  makes  his  pre-existence  im 
possible.  "  Why  speakest  thou,  0  Israel  ?  Hast  thou  not  known 
10 


74  Scripture  Analysis. 

that  the  everlasting  God,  the  Lord,  the  Creator  of  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  fainteth  not,  neither  is  weary  ?  He  giveth  power  to  the 
faint,  and  to  them  that  have  no  might  He  increaseth  strength. 
Even  the  youths  shall  faint  and  be  weary,  but  they  that  wait 
upon  the  Lord  shall  renew  their  strength ;  they  shall  mount  up 
with  wings  as  eagles ;  they  shall  run  and  not  be  weary,  and  they 
shall  walk  and  not  faint.  " 


PRE -EXISTENCE  AND  GODSHIP  OF  CHRIST. 


To  the  unprejudiced  and  unbiased  mind,  the  further  prosecu- 
tion of  the  subject  of  the  Godship  and  pre-existence  of  Christ 
must  seem  supererogatory  —  a  waste  of  time  and  unnecessary  trial 
of  tlieir  patience.  To  all  such,  nothing  further  can  be  necessary. 
But  to  those  who  have  had  these  false  ideas  ground  down  deeply 
into  their  very  souls  by  a  hireling  priesthood,  from  early  infancy 
to  old  age,  it  seems  something  more  should  be  said ;  for  it  ap- 
pears, that  so  long  as  one  single  text  of  scripture  remains  unex- 
plained, they  will  still  fall  behind  that,  as  an  impregnable  rampart, 
which  truth  dare  not  assail,  forgetting  that  they  have  already 
yielded  their  strongest  fortifications,  and  that  it  is  folly  to  still 
try  to  save  themselves  behind  their  weaker  ones.  So  firmly  fixed 
has  been  the  idea  that  Christ  Jesus  was  super-human,  and  hence 
not  a  practical  example  for  mere  mortal  man,  that,  after  yielding 
points  and  principles  which  destroy  their  stereotyped  but  false 
notions  of  Him,  they  still  remain  obstinate,  and  will  not  yield 
imtil  they  are  left  without  argument,  oi',  so  long  as  they  can  find 
in  Holy  Writ  one  single  prop  to  sustain  their  confessedly  false 
position. 

I  introduce  to  your  notice  all  those  texts  of  scripture  which  are 
claimed  to  support  the  false  dogma  of  the  Godship  and  pre-exist- 
ence of  Christ. 

I.  It  is  said,  in  order  to  prove  the  eternity  and  Godship  of 
Christ,  that  He  was  a  "  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world."  Rev,  xiii,  8.  If  this  has  reference  to  a  pre-existent  spirit 
or  angel,  we  have  no  knowledge  of  such  spirit  or  angel  having 
been  slain,  and  if  such  spirit  had  been  anointed  the  Lord's  Christ, 
and  was  slain,  this  slaying  nnist  have  been  the  work  of  God, 
which  is  neither  sensible  nor  probable ;  and  if  it  be  further  con- 
tended that  such  Christ  was  God  Himself,  and  was  slain,  God 
then  must  have  committed  suicide  !  To  such  absurd  conclusions 
do  wrong  positions  lead  us.  If  it  has  reference  to  Christ  —  "  the 
man,  Christ  Jesus"  —  it  will  not  be  contended  that  he  was  slain 
before  Christ  Jesus  came  into  existence :  hence  it  must  either 


76  Pke-Existence  and  Godship  of  Christ. 

have  been  prospective,  or  reference  had  to  the  New  "World,  not 
the  old ;  in  which  case  the  sentence  must  contain  an  ellipsis,  to 
be  supplied  thus :  A  lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  (new) 
—  or,  as  elsewhere  expressed,  before  the  foundation  of  the  world 
(was  completed),  which  foundation  was  not  completed  previous 
to  His  second  appearing. 

II.  "  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yesterday-,  to-daj,  and  forever." 
Heb.  xiii,  8.  It  is  supposed  that  the  apostle  here  affirms  the  im- 
mutaMlity,  and  consequently  the  Godship  of  Christ.  By  reading 
the  context,  it  will  be  readily  discovered  that  it  was  only  His  con- 
stancy, or  fixedness  of  ]3^^rpo^®3  ^^^^  unwavering  devotion  to  the 
will  of  His  Father.  He  sets  before  them  this  virtue  for  their  im- 
itation :  "Be  not  carried  about  by  divers  strange  doctrines;  for 
it  is  a  good  thing  that  the  heart  be  established  with  grace."  — 
Heb.  xiii,  9.  As  to  fixedness  of  purpose,  constancy  and  unflinch- 
ing integrity  and  adherence  to  truth,  His  immutability  is  not  de- 
nied ;  nor  can  the  same  be  denied  of  other  good  men  and  women 
who  reside  in  His  new  Heavens ;  for,  "  Herein  is  our  love  made 
perfect,  that  we  may  have  boldness  in  the  day  of  judgment ;  he- 
cause  as  He  is,  so  are  we  in  this  worlds  —  1  John  iv,  17. 

III.  "  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  my  name, 
there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them."  —  Matt,  xviii,  20.  It  is  sup- 
posed by  this  that  Christ  attached  to  Himself  the  attribute  of  om- 
nipresence.  This  can  the  most  readily  be  explained  by  reference 
to  other  texts.  Paul  says  :  "  For  I,  verily,  absent  in  body,  am 
present  in  spirit,  having  judged  already  as  though  I  were  present " 
(in  body).  — I  Cor.  v,  3.  "  For  though  I  am  absent  in  the  flesh, 
yet  I  am  with  you  in  the  spirit,  joying  and  beholding  your  order, 
and  the  steadfastness  of  your  faith  in  Christ."  —  Col.  ii,  5.  So, 
then,  if  the  former  proves  the  ubiquity  of  Christ,  the  latter  proves 
the  same  of  Paul.     "What  is  true  of  one  is  true  of  tlie  other. 

IV.  Omniscience  is  thought  to  be  ascribed  to  Christ  by  the 
apostle  whei'e  he  says :  "  In  whom  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of 
wisdom  and  knowledge."  —  Col.  ii,  3.  In  turning  to  the  text, 
we  find  it  not  only  applicable  to  Christ,  but  God  is  included. 
Yerse  2  reads :  "  That  their  hearts  might  be  comforted,  being 
knit  together  in  love,  and  unto  all  riches  of  the  full  assurance  of 
understanding,  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the  mystery  of  God 
and  of  the  Father,  and  of  Christ ;  in  whom  (God  and  Christ)  are 
hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge." 

But  if  it  be  contended  that  it  only  has  reference  to  Christ,  I 


Alpha  ajstd  Omega.  7T 

would  then  cite  you  to  what  tlie  apostle  says  to  the  Romans  :  "  I 
myself  am  also  persuaded  that  ye  are  also  filled  with  all  hnowl- 
edgeP  —  Eora.  xv,  14.  Again :  "  I  thank  my  God  always  on 
your  behalf,  that  in  every  thing  ye  are  enriclied  by  Him,  in  all 
utterance  and  in  all  knowledge^  — I  Cor.  i,  4,  5.  What  is  proved 
for  one  is  proved  for  the  other.  If  the  former  gives  to  Christ 
the  attribute  of  omniscience,  it  gives  the  same  to  both  Romans 
and  Corinthians.  Besides,  Christ  denies  the  possession  of  this 
attribute,  by  telling  us  that  there  were  many  things  He  did  not 
know. 

Y.  "  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning  and  the  ending, 
said  the  Lord,  which  is,  and  which  was,  and  which  is  to  come, 
the  Almighty."  — ■  Rev.  i,  8.  This  is  either  willfully  or  ignorantly 
referred  to  Jesus  Christ,  who,  it  is  said,  declares  He  is  the  Al- 
mighty. But,  as  the  text  itself  says,  it  is  the  Lord  that  speaks, 
we  need  not  refer  it  to  another.  It  is  admitted,  that  verses  16, 
17,  and  18,  refer  to  Christ  —  "A  sharp,  two-edged  sword  (of 
truth)  goes  out  of  His  mouth,"  etc.,  and  if  He  is  first  and  last,  it 
must  refer  to  the  new  creation,  of  which  He  is  first  and  last ;  as, 
also,  "  the  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith."  And  if  "  He  that 
now  liveth  was  dead  "  (verse  18),  it  cannot  refer  to  the  Almighty, 
of  whom  it  cannot  be  said  lie  was  ever  dead  in  any  sense  of  the 
term. 

YI.  I  have  heretofore  commented  on  and  explained  the  first 
chapter  of  Hebrews  and  Colossians,  where  it  speaks  of  God  mak- 
ing the  world  by  Christ,  etc.,  but  I  did  not  notice  the  eighth 
verse  of  Hebrews  :  I.  "  But  unto  the  son  He  saith  :  Thy  throne, 
O  God,  is  forever  and  ever ;  a  scepter  of  righteousness  is  the 
scepter  of  thy  kingdom."  The  ninth  verse  shows  that  the  Godship 
spoken  of  is  in  the  subordinate  sense  :  "  Thou  hast  loved  right- 
eousness and  hated  iniquity ;  therefore  God,  even  thy  God,  hath 
anointed  thee  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above  thy  fellows."  It  is 
easily  perceived  here  tliat  there  was  a  God  above  Christ  that 
anointed  Him,  and  if  Christ  was  the  Almighty,  or  some  high  cre- 
ated spirit,  it  would  be  a  question  of  some  importance  to  learn 
who  His /WZ<9i6'5  were,  above  whom  He  was  anointed. 

YII.  "  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a  son  is  given,  and  his 
name  shall  be  called  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  the  Mighty  God, 
the  everlasting  Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace."  —  Isa.  ix,  6.  It 
will  be  perceived  that  it  was  a  child  and  son  to  whom  these  titles 
were  to  be  given.     A  son  —  somebody's  son  —  was  to  be  called 


78  Pke-Existence  and  Godship  of  Christ. 

the  Mighty  God,  etc.  This  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled  to  the 
letter ;  for  the  "  Son  of  Man,"  Christ  Jesus,  has  not  only  been 
called  the  Mighty  God,  but  many  have  gone  so  far  as  to  call  Him 
the  Almighty  God  !  I  need  only  further  remark,  that  anybody's 
son  having  been  called,  or  being  called  the  Mighty  or  Almighty, 
does  not  make  him  such,  in  our  sense  of  these  terms.  There  is 
but  one  Almighty.  Moses  and  others  were  called  God  —  even 
magistrates  were  called  Gods.  Again :  The  prophet  Jeremiah, 
speaking  of  the  Son,  says :  "  In  his  days,  Judah  shall  be  saved, 
and  Israel  shall  dwell  safely,  and  this  is  the  name  whereby  He 
shall  be  called :  the  Lord  our  righteousness."  —  Jer,  xxiii,  6. 
Also,  the  same  prophet,  doubtless  referring  to  the  second  appear- 
ing of  Christ  in  the  female,  says :  "  This  is  the  name  Avherewith 
she  shall  be  called:  the  Lord  our  righteousness." — Jer.  xxxiii,  16. 
If  the  first  proves  the  Son  to  be  the  Almighty  God,  the  latter 
proves  as  much  for  the  Daughter ;  but  it  does  not  prove  this  of 
either.  "Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord." — Mark, 
xii,  29. 

YIII.  "  Let  this  mind  be  in  you,  also  which  was  in  Christ 
Jesus ;  who,  being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not  robbery  to 
be  equal  with  God." — Phil,  ii,  5,  6.  The  question  which  arises 
here,  is  :  What  mind  was  it  tliat  was  in  Christ  which  Paul  wished 
also  to  be  in  the  Philippians?  According  to  the  text  it  was  evi- 
dently this :  '•'  To  think  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God." 
He  says  Christ  thought  so  and  wishes  and  advises  them  to  be  of 
the  same  mind.  If  to  be  of  this  mind  made  Christ  God,  the  same 
mind  made  God  of  the  Philippians.  This  is  only  a  different  form 
of  expressing  the  same  idea  which  Christ  Himself  expressed — that 
He  "was  one  with  the  Father,  and  the  disciples  one  with  Him," 
so  that  those  who  are  one,  in  and  for  any  purpose,  are  in  that 
purpose  in  a  certain  sense  equal.  Christ  more  clearly  expressed 
it  than  Paul,  though  both  evidently  meant  the  same  thing,  as 
Paul  was  citing  Christ  as  their  example  in  all  things.  Hence  it 
was  no  robbery  for  the  faithful  to  consider  themselves  equal  with 
Christ,  nor  Christ  with  God,  in  the  sense  in  which  they  were 
one  —  "God  being  in  them  all  to  will  and  to  do;"  further,  who 
being  in  the  form  of  (or  conformed  to)  God,  the  faithful  being 
also  in  the  form  of  (or  conformed  to)  Christ,  to  God.  l^othing 
mysterious  about  it.  Again  :  "  Being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man 
(whilst  He  was  in  the  form  of  God),  He  humbled  liimself ,  and 
.  became  obedient  unto  death ;  wherefore  (in  consequence  of  this 


Divine  Essence.  T9 

obedience),  God  hath  higlily  exalted  Him,  etc.,  that  every  tongue 
shall  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God 
the  Father;  wherefore,  my  beloved,  as  ye  have  always  obeyed 
(as  Christ  did),  work  ont  your  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling, 
for  it  is  God  that  worheth  in  you  hoth  (Christ  and  you),  to  will 
and  to  do  for  His  good  pleasure." — Phil,  ii,  8-14.  By  what  has 
been  said,  it  is  easily  seen  in  what  the  equality  consisted.  Whom 
God  commissions,  what  he  does,  God  does,  in  which  they  are 
equal  without  robbery.  "The  Father  in  me  and  I  in  you"  —  all 
one.  Adam  Clarke,  Tillotson,  AVhiston,  and  others  deny  the 
pi'esent  rendering,  making  it  appear  that  Christ  did  not  arrogate 
to  Himself  to  be  equal  with  God ;  but  I  feel  no  necessity  of  avail- 
ing mj^self  of  the  advantage  of  tlieir  rendering. 

IX.  "  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father." — John 
xiv,  9.  Jesus  did  not  expect  Philip  to  understand  that  He  was 
both  the  Son  and  the  Father,  personally,  nor  that  He  was  the 
Father  of  the  Son ;  but  that  He  manifested  the  attributes  and 
fatherly  character  of  God,  which  they  could  see.  Whosoever 
sees  the  attributes  of  God,  sees  God.  Jesus  manifested  these 
attributes  ;  whosoever  therefore  saw  Him,  saw  God.  Hence  Jesus 
told  the  truth  in  saying  "  He  that  seetli  me  seeth  the  Father." 

X.  "  In  him  (Christ)  dwelleth  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily." — Col.  ii,  9.  The  essential  signification  of  the  term  God- 
head is  "  Divine  nature  or  essence.''^  That  this  dwelt  in  Jesus 
none  will  be  inclined  to  deny ;  but  it  does  not  make  Him  the 
Supreme.    This  same  essence  is  in  all  true  Christians.    2  Pet.  i,  4. 

XL  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the  spirit,  seen 
of  angels,  preached  unto  the  Gentiles,  believed  on  in  the  w^orld, 
received  up  into  glory." — 1st  Tim.  iii,  16.  This  text  is  also 
doubted,  and  has  other  renderings ;  but  I  will  only  say  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  God  was  manifested  in  the  flesh  (of  the  man  Christ 
Jesus  who  was),  justified  in  the  spirit,  preached  to  the  Gentiles, 
believed  on  in  the  world,  and  received  up  into  glory. 

XII.  "  Yet  Michael,  the  Arch-angel,  when  contending  with 
the  devil  he  disputed  about  the  body  of  Moses,  he  durst  not 
bring  a  railing  accusation,"  etc.     Jude,  9. 

If  there  are  any  who  think  that  this  Michael,  to  whom  Jude 
referred  his  brethren,  was  a  pre-existent,  spiritual  Christ,  who  was 
going  about  in  the  wilderness  incognito  and  there  met  with  the 
devil,  the  great  enemy  of  God,  when  a  contention  arose  between 
them  about  the  corpse  of  Moses,  I  would  suggest  that  they  had 


80  Pre-Existence  and  Godship  of  Christ. 

not  found  the  true  exegesis.  When  we  turn  to  Deuteronomy, 
we  find  an  account  of  the  death  of  Moses,  and  his  burial,  in  the 
land  of  Moab,  over  against  Beth-peor,  and  the  people  mourning 
about  it ;  but  we  find  no  account  of  the  contention  spoken  of  by 
Jude.  The  place  of  his  sepulchre  was  kept  secret,  but  those  who 
buried  him  must  have  known  where  the  remains  were  interred, 
and  if  they  were  secreted  from  the  multitude,  it  was,  of  course, 
by  order  of  his  successor,  Joshua,  who  was  the  one  that  ruled  in 
the  matter. 

The  idea  is  extremely  ludicrous  to  imagine  that  a  foreign  angel, 
Michael,  wrested  the  corj)se  from  the  people,  and  another  foreign, 
invisible  angel,  seeing  it,  comes  in  on  the  side  of  the  people  to 
restore  it  to  them,  when  a  contention  ensued  between  these  foreign 
invisibles  in  "the  woods,"  somewhere  in  the  land  of  Moab.  I 
cannot  close  in  with  such  literalization  of  the  words  of  Jude. 
He  was  evidently  speaking  to  them,  as  he  says,  of  things  they 
had  known,  and  cited  Michael's  conduct,  under  the  most  trying 
circumstances,  as  an  example  for  their  imitation. 

But  the  corpse  of  Moses  was  not  the  body  referred  to  by  Jude. 
That  corpse  could  not  be  called  the  body  of  Moses  after  he  had 
put  it  off,  any  more  than  any  other  lump  of  clay.  The  body  of 
Moses  spoken  of,  was  that  which  was  instituted  and  made  under 
the  Mosaic  law.  Here,  then,  is  where  the  contention  existed. 
Christ  himself  arose  out  of  the  body  of  Moses,  and  Christ's  body, 
or  Churcli,  was  formed  out  of  it,  which  was  an  all-sufticient  cause 
to  create  a  contention  between  him  and  the  devil  in  the  Pharisees, 
or  devilish  Pharisees ;  and  that  such  disputation  as  spoken  of  did 
exist,  both  Jude  and  those  whom  he  addressed  very  well  knew, 
and  if  Christ  is  to  be  understood  as  meant  by  the  term  Michael, 
it  must  have  been  the  anointed  Jesus  to  whom  Jude  pointed  them 
for  an  example.  Ko  mystery  about  it ;  no  pre-existent  Christ ; 
no  unoriginated  devil,  suh  rosa. 

XIII.  "  Thou  lovedst  me  before  the  foundation  of  the  world." 
It  must  not  be  forgotten,  that  these  expressions  have  reference  to 
the  new  world  that  was  made  by  Christ,  l^otice  Timothy : 
"  According  as  He  hath  chosen  us  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world." — 2  Tim.  ii,  9.  "What  the  text  proves  for  the  me  that 
was  loved,  it  also  proves  for  us  that  were  chosen.  Further :  "  God 
hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  to  us  by  His  Son,  whom  He  hath 
appointed  heir  of  all  things ;  by  whom  also  He  made  the  (new) 
worlds." — Hebrews,  i,  2.     It  may  be  thought  this  cannot  refer  to 


Worship.  81 

the  new  world  without  conflicting  with  verses  10  and  11 :  "  And 
thou  Lord,  in  the  beginning  hast  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth, 
and  the  heavens  are  the  work  of  thy  hands ;  they  shall  perish  but 
thou  remainest ;  and  they  shall  wax  old  as  doth  a  garment,  and  as 
a  vesture  shalt  thou  fold  them  up,  and  they  shall  be  changed," 
etc.  Whether  we  consider  that  the  new  heavens  in  the  last  days, 
in  verse  2,  and  that  which  the  Lord  naade  in  the  beginning,  verse 
10,  were  the  same  or  not,  I  see  no  conflict,  for  the  new  heavens 
of  the  first  appearing  of  Christ  did  perish  and  pass  away  as  pre- 
dicted. The  same  may  be  said  of  the  old  heavens  ^'  they  also 
waxed  old  as  a  garment,  and  passed  away  from  all  who  entered 
the  new  heavens. 

XIY.  Paul  says :  "  Jesus  was  made  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels"  (as  the  first  man  Adam  was).  I  am  asked:  "If  Jesus 
was  made  lower  than  the  angels,  can  He  be  the  person  of  whom  it 
was  said :  '  When  He  bringeth  His  first  begotten  into  the  world, 
let  all  the  angels  of  God  worship  Him  ? '  this  must,  after  all,  be 
God  Himself,  as  He  only  is  to  be  worshiped."  If  this  is  the  pivot 
on  which  the  question  turns,  the  claim  to  a  "  pre-existent  spirit 
Christ "  is  destroyed  ;  but  reference  is  had  to  neither.  The  term 
worship  is  used  in  a  modified  sense.  According  to  Webster,  "  to 
respect ;  to  honor ;  to  treat  with  civil  reverence,"  is  to  worship. 
Hence  the  anointed  Jesus  was  the  man  to  be  thus  respected  by 
angels ;  for  He  being  made,  as  we  were,  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels,  "  yet  for  the  suffering  of  death  (of  the  carnal  nature),  He 
was  crowned  with  glory  and  honor;"  (v.  2,  9),  and  thus,  being 
made  so  much  better  than  the  angels.  He  by  inheritance  obtained 
a  more  excellent  name  than  t/iet/. — (Heb.  i,  4.) 

"  Therefore  when  He,  the  first  begotten,  was  brought  forth 
(born  out  of  a  sinful  nature)  into  the  (new)  world"  or  order, 
"  then  let  the  angels  of  God  respect  Him."  Thus  it  was,  the 
anointed  man  Jesus  became  an  object  of  veneration  to  the  angels, 
by  virtue  of  His  own  good  works.  No  being  who  is  higher  than 
another  by  virtue  of  his  or  her  creation  can  be,  for  that  reason, 
an  object  of  veneration ;  because  they  merit  neither  honor  nor 
dishonor  for  that  which  they  could  not  avoid.  The  old  saw, 
"  pretty  is,  as  pretty  does,"  will  hold  good  in  things  spiritual  as 
well  as  natural. 

XY.  It  is  truly  affirmed,  that  Christ,  the  second  Adam,  was 
a  "quickening  Spirit."  I  am  asked  :  Was  ^A^s  Jesus ?  I  answer: 
Most  certainly,  the  anointed  Jesus ;  but  flesh,  blood  and  bones 
11 


82  Pke-Existence  and  Gods  hip  of  Chkist. 

were  not  Jesus,  any  more  than  such  are  the  real  person  of  any  one 
of  us.  Jesus  was  "inside  of  all  that.  The  hands,  the  eyes,  the 
brain,  and  organs  of  speech  were  the  manif esters  of  the  anointed 
Jesus,  or  Christ.  The  commissioned,  the  anointed,  the  quickened 
Jesus  was  the  manifested  and  the  "  quickening  Spirit^  It 
would  be  just  as  pertinent  to  ask  in  relation  to  \\\q,  first  man  who 
"  became  a  living  soul : "  was  that  Adam  %  We  can,  with  the 
same  facility  of  reasoning,  call  Jesus  a  "  quickening  spirit,"  as  we 
can  call  Adam  a  "  living  soul."  Again :  If  the  second  Adam, 
whom  we  say  was  the  quickening  sjpirit^  was  created  before  the 
old  world  or  visible  universe,  when  was  \\\q- first  Adam  created? 
Or  was  iho,  first  Adam  created  after  the  second  ?  If  so,  he  whom 
we  call  the  first  Adam  and  type  of  the  second  Adam  must  have 
been  created  after  the  antitype,  the  print  made  before  the  type  ! 
the  second  created  hefore  the  first ! !  Lord  Bacon  himself,  with  all 
his  metaphysical  subtlety,  could  not  reconcile  this  as  a  paradox. 
But  after  all,  this  quickening  spirit  was  a  man  —  "  the  man  Christ 
Jesus"  and  not  the  Supreme,  nor  a  foreign  pre-existent  spirit. 
Thus,  it  seems  to  me,  we  cannot  so  sufficiently  blind  our  eyes  to 
truth  as  not  to  see  the  absolute  impossibility  of  reconciling  the 
Godship  and  pre-existent  theory  of  Christ  either  with  the  Scrip- 
tures or  with  reason. 

But  further :  If  Christ  was  God  supreme,  or  pre-existed  with 
God,  and  was  created  before  the  first  earthly  Adam,  it  is  impos- 
sible that  He  should  be  the  second  Adam,  or  second  to  Adam  in 
any  sense.  He,  being  a  pure  spirit,  cannot  be  second  on  this 
point ;  and,  being  first  in  point  of  time,  it  is  therefore  imjwssible 
that  He  should  be  second  in  any  sense.  This  being  admitted,  He 
cannot  be  the  antitype  of  any  person  or  thing.  Thus  not  only 
would  the  typeship  of  Adam  be  destroyed,  but  the  typeship  of  the 
thousand  other  things  that  the  professing  world  claim  as  types  of 
Christ  would  be  annihilated,  seeing  He  existed  with  God  anterior 
to  them  all.  Thus  do  the  priesthood  by  adhering  to  this  absurd 
position,  like  children,  make  utter  shipwreck  of  their  castle  of 
cobs,  leaving  it  strewn  around  in  hopeless  confusion. 

XYI.  I  am  asked:  If  Jesus,  the  "carpenter's  son,"  was  the 
Christ  of  the  first  gospel  dispensation,  by  what  species  of  meta- 
morphosis or  metempsychosis  do  we  make  Ann  Lee  His  second 
appearing  ;  seeing  He  was  man  and  she  was  a  woman  ?  how  could 
lie  thus  reappear,  without  undergoing  a  generic  transformation  ? 
I  answer :  He  reappeared  in  her  Godly  life  and  searching  power ; 


Christ  in   the   Female.  83 

in  her  self-denial ;  in  her  humiliation  ;  in  her  willingly  suffering 
afflictions  and  persecutions ;  in  her  patience ;  in  her  wisdom ;  in 
her  long  sufferings ;  in  her  deep,  intense,  and  agonizing  labors  of 
soul,  night  and  day,  for  mankind ;  in  her  renunciation  of,  and 
overcoming  the  world,  as  He  (Jesus)  did  ;  finally,  in  all  the  fruits 
shown  forth  b}^  Jesus  in  His  anointed  capacity,  did  He  reappear  in 
the  anointed  Ann.  You  talk  of  miracles.  We  need  not  speak 
of  small  things ;  but  herein,  indeed,  has  the  "  woman  compassed 
the  man,"  leaving  behind  her  a  standing  miracle  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world,  of  far  greater  magnitude  than  any  thing  wrought  by 
the  Saviour  during  His  sojourn  on  earth,  or  by  His  immediate 
followers ;  and  that  is  the  existence  of  a  numlier  of  organized 
and  established  societies  or  churches  of  her  faithful  followers, 
dwelling  together  in  harmony,  and  living  the  sj^iritual  life  of 
Christ,  around  which  all  may  cluster,  and  into  which  all  who  are 
willing  to  forsake  the  world  for  eternal  life  may  come,  of  every 
nation,  kindred,  and  tongue. 

It  would  be  just  as  proper  to  say  that  Elias  did  not  come  the 
second  time;  therefore  John  the  Baptist  was  not  that  prophet  — 
was  not  Elias  —  as  to  say  Jesus  did  not  reappear.  Jesus  Himself 
settled  this  matter.  He  said  :  "  This  is  Elias  that  was  to  come." 
Thus  we  see  it  was  not  necessary  for  the  same  flesh  and  bones,  nor 
the  same  person  to  come,  in  order  for  Elias  to  reappear ;  but 
another  person  to  come  in  his  spirit,  power,  and  gift ;  and  this 
truly  was  the  case  (though  the  whole  world  may  sneer)  with  our 
loved  Mother  Ann  Lee. 

If  Jesus  the  Christ,  or  Ann  Christ  had  been  created  on  a  higher 
plane,  or  scale  of  existence,  than  the  rest  of  the  human  family,  it 
would  have  been  decidedly  disadvantageous  to  them.  If  Jesus 
Christ  had  overcome,  by  virtue  of  a  higher  creation,  every  one  of 
His  followers  who  arose  from  a  lower  estate,  male  or  female, 
deserves  greater  adoration  than  He,  and  He  would  himself  bend 
the  knee  in  worshipful  homage  and  respect  to  them,  because  they 
overcame  with  less  advantages  than  He  enjoyed.  But  this  is  not 
the  case.  Jesus  Christ,  that  blessed  man  and  Son  of  God,  was 
the  pioneer  in  this  glorious  work ;  who,  by  constantly  and  un- 
flinchingly obeying  the  light  of  God,  unfolded  within  His  con- 
sciousness, arose  from  our  lost  estate,  thereby  setting  a  practical 
example  for  all  men ;  and  Ann  Lee,  the  blessed  and  honored 
daughter  of  God,  was  the  pioneer  in  His  second  appearing  —  the 
first  woman  —  the  first  jperson  —  that  overcame,  in  the  second 


84  Pre-Existence  and  Godship  of  Cheist. 

manifestation,  and  arose,  as  did  Jesus,  out  of  the  lost  condition 
of  man ;  thus  setting  a  practical  example  for  all  loomen.  Thus 
are  tlie  two  foundation  pillars  established,  to  which  the  types 
refer,  as  I  shall,  in  subsequent  discourses,  clearly  set  forth  to  you. 
These,  the  parents,  the  Father  and  Mother,  in  God's  new  creation, 
are  now  with  their  children  "  co-workers  together  with  God  "  for 
the  salvation  and  redemption  of  the  world. 

One  thing  is  certain :  this  is  either  true  or  it  is  false ;  if  it  is 
true  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  so  important  and  so  necessary 
that  you  should  know ;  if  it  is  false,  then  a  falsehood  has  accom- 
plished more  than  all  the  truths  and  philosophy  of  the  world  have 
been  able  to  do  from  Adam  to  the  present  day.  I  do  most  con- 
scientiously beg  you  to  look  this  thing  in  the  face ;  for  if  it  is  a 
delusion,  think  what  amount  of  delusion  it  would  take  to  get  any 
to  forsake  the  pleasures  of  sense  and  lead  a  Godly  life,  and  how 
much  it  would  take  to  get  them  to  obey  even  what  light  they 
already  have  given  them  !  Do  you  not  continually  "  resist  the 
holy  spirit?     As  your  fathers  did  so  do  ye." — Acts  vii,  51. 

I  speak  unto  all  as  unto  wise  men ;  as  men  of  deep  research,  of 
knowledge,  of  understanding.  I  make  the  appeal  to  all  as  phil- 
osophers, as  biblicists,  and  as  reasonable  men  —  as  men  and  women 
of  broad,  comprehensive  powers  of  mind  —  as  candid,  and  as 
honest  men  and  women.  I  earnestly  repeat  it  and  entreat  of  all 
not  to  cast  it  behind  as  unworthy  of  serious  thought,  saying  it  is 
only  a  figment  of  the  fancy  of  some  dreaming  idiot  or  fanatic 
set  of  monks  or  nuns  or  superstitious  bigots. 

Christ  has  either  made  "  His  second  appearing  without  sin  unto 
salvation"- — -ITeb.  ix,  28  —  or  He  has  not.  If  He  has,  those  to 
whom,  and  in  whom.  He  has  appeared,  are  saved,  as  He  was,  from 
the  sins  and  lost  estate  of  the  world.  If  He  has  not,  then  none 
are  so  saved.  Do  you  call  this  a  superstitious  illusion  ?  If  so,  I 
woidd  ask :  What  amount  of  superstition  can  make  any  of  us 
forsake  a  life  of  animal  pleasure  and  lead  the  life  of  Christ? 
What  amount  of  bigotry  would  make  us  adhere  to  it  ?  To  men 
and  women  of  candor  I  solemnly  appeal,  and  ask :  If  in  the  per- 
son of  any  one,  the  friu'ts  and  essential  characteristics  that  accom- 
panied Jesus  Christ,  have  appeared,  is  this  not  as  much  and  as 
really  the  second  appearance  of  Christ,  as  was  John  the  Baptist 
the  reappearance  of  Elias  ?  No  man  of  sense  and  candor  will  say 
not.  The  mission  of  Elias  was  to  turn  the  hearts  of  the  children 
to  the  fathers,  and  to  the  observance  of  the  broken  law  of  Moses. 


The  Christ  Spikit  Revived.  85 

John  the  Baptist  was  the  same ;  hence  Jesus  said  he  was  that 
Elias.  Jesus  Christ's  mission,  as  I  have  heretofore  shown,  and 
will  yet  more  fully  show,  was  to  call  mankind  from  the  rudimental 
to  a  higher  life  —  from  the  natural,  carnal,  selfish,  partial,  to  the 
spiritual,  unselfish,  universal,  and  Godlike — leading  the  way  Him- 
self, in  His  practical  life,  from  all  self  indulgence  and  pleasure,  to 
abnegations,  saying  to  the  world,  "  follow  me."  This  work  and 
life  fell  away  as  predicted,  and  the  world  remained  without  Christ 
for  more  than  twelve  hundred  years,  when,  lo !  it  M^as  revived 
and  exhibited  a  second  time  by  a  woman  —  and  that  woman's 
name  was  Ann  Lee. 

If  the  properties  and  qualities  and  life  of  Christ  were  mani- 
fested by  her  out  from  the  triple  darkness  that  enveloped  the 
world,  who,  I  ask,  with  any  pretension  to  fairness  and  reason,  can 
hold  up  their  heads  and  assert  that  this  was  not  as  much  and  as 
really  the  reappearance  of  Christ  as  was  John  the  Baptist  the 
reappearance  of  Elias  ?  I  feel  sure  no  reasonable  person  can  or 
will  deny  it.  Then  those  who  go  wdth  me  thus  far  are  bound  to 
do  one  of  two  things  —  either  to  prove  that  these  fruits  did  not 
appear  and  were  not  manifested  by  Ann  Lee,  or  else  confess  that 
Christ  has  appeared  the  second  time,  as  promised,  "  without  sin 
unto  salvation." 

We  testify  to  the  world  boldly  that  these  fruits  did  appear  in 
her,  and  that  the  fruition  of  all  her  hopes  and  expectations  is 
beino;  realized  in  her  true  and  faithful  followers.  I  wish  it  to  be 
especially  noticed  that  I  am  not  asking  any  to  believe  a  mystery. 
I  am  not  running  into  other  spheres  beyond  the  clouds  and 
wanderino;  amono-  the  stars  to  fix  the  sense  on  some  chimera  or 
plausible  hypothesis.  I  ask  no  one  to  believe  a  mystery.  I  wish 
not  to  fix  attention  on  the  regal  splendor  of  some  topless  throne 
in  Jupiter;  but  rather  to  draw  the  mind  back  to  the  heart,  to 
God  in  the  soul,  and  the  demands  of  Christ  upon  our  daily  life, 
and  realize  that  the  "  kingdom  of  heaven  [or  of  hell]  is  within," 
as  we  make  it  by  our  own  action  in  this  sublunary  sphere. 

"  And  they  shall  be  mine,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  in  that  day 
when  I  make  up  my  jewels ;  and  I  will  spare  them,  as  a  man 
spareth  his  own  son  that  serveth  him.  Then  shall  ye  return  and 
discern  between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  between  him  that 
serveth  God,  and  him  that  serveth  Him  not." — Mai.  iii,  IT,  18. 

"  Hear,  0  Israel ;  the  Lord  hath  a  controversy  with  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  land,  because  there  is  no  truth  nor  mercy  therein. 


86  Pre-Existence  and  Godship  of  Christ. 

By  swearing,  and  lying,  and  killing,  and  stealing,  and  committing 
adultery,  they  break  out,  and  blood  touclieth  blood.  Therefore 
shall  the  land  mourn,  and  every  one  that  dwelleth  therein  lan- 
guish, with  the  beasts  of  the  field,  and  the  fowls  of  heaven." — 
Hos.  vi,  1,  2,  3. 

Hear  then,  O  earth  !  (Ye  lions  of  the  forest  in  the  wilderness  of 
sin),  and  ye  eagles  that  cleave  the  clouds  (ye  great  ones  of  the 
earth),  sheath  your  bloody  talons  and  draw  near  to  Zion  and 
receive  ye  the  spirit  of  the  Lamb  and  the  Dove,  or  the  Lamb  and 
the  Bride,  and  permit  a  "little  child"  to  lead  you  into  the  king- 
dom of  youi"  Heavenly  Father  and  Mother. 


CHRIST  THE  SON  OF  GOD. 


If  my  manner  of  speech  is  offensive  to  the  refined  tastes  of  the 
more  cultivated  part  of  society,  1  must  beg  charity,  as  I  am  but  a 
"plain,  bhmt  man,"  and  am  not  able  to  convey  my  ideas  with 
that  mellifluous  euphony  and  oily  sweetness  to  which  some  may 
have  been  accustomed  to  listen.  To  present  understandable  truth, 
unvarnished,  being  my  main  object,  I  cannot  take  time  to  polish 
phrases,  were  I  able  to  do  so,  although  I  should  be  happy  to 
j)lease  all.  Innumerable  falsehoods  are  covered  by  much  learning 
and  a  finely  wrought  phraseology,  of  wdiich  Locke  thus  discourses  : 
"  All  artificial  and  figurative  applications  of  w^ords  that  eloquence 
hath  invented  are  for  nothing  else  but  to  insinuate  wrong  ideas, 
move  the  passions,  and  thereby  mislead  the  judgment.  It  is 
evident  how  much  men  love  to  deceive  and  be  deceived,  since 
rhetoric,  that  powerful  instrument  of  error  and  deceit,  has  its 
established  professors.  *  *  It  is  to  fence  against  the  entangle- 
ments of  equivocal  words  and  the  great  art  of  sophistry  that  lie 
in  them,  that  distinctions  have  been  multiplied,  and  their  use 
thought  so  necessary.  *  *  But  it  is  not. the  right  way  to 
knowledge  to  hunt  after  and  fill  the  head  with  abundance  of  arti- 
ficial and  scholastic  distinction.  *  *  For  in  things  crumbled 
into  dust,  it  is  in  vain  to  affect  or  pretend  order,  or  expect  clear- 
ness. *  '^'  ^  Words  being  intended  for  signs  of  my  ideas  to 
make  them  known  to  others,  it  is  plain  cheat  and  abuse  when  I 
make  them  stand  sometimes  for  one  tiling,  and  sometimes  for 
another ;  the  willful  doing  whereof  can  be  imputed  to  nothing 
but  great  folly  or  greater  dishonesty.  ''^  *  *  They  who 
would  advance  in  knowledge,  and  not  deceive  themselves  with  a 
little  articulated  air,  should  lay  down  this  as  a  fundamental  rule  : 
not  to  take  words  for  things,  nor  suppose  them  to  stand  for  real 
entities.  *  *  When  men  have  clear  conceptions,  they  can,  if 
they  are  ever  so  obtuse  and  abstracted,  explain  them  and  the 
terms  they  use  for  them.  If  they  cannot  give  us  the  ideas  their 
words  stand  for,  it  is  clear  they  have  none." 


88  Christ  the  Son  of  God. 

It  seems  to  me  that  nothing  can  be  more  true  than  these  words 
of  the  pious  philosopher.  Who  has  not  noticed  in  forensic 
debates,  where  the  opposing  parties  were  of  equal  intellectual 
endowment,  that  by  their  eloquence  or  rhetorical  flourish  of 
words  they  would,  in  turn,  carry  the  minds  of  the  audience  from 
side  to  side  like  a  leaf  tossed  in  the  wind,  and  not  unfrequently 
so  conceal  the  truth  as  to  entirely  exculpate  the  wicked  and  pun- 
ish the  innocent  ?  "  Crucify  him,  crucify  him."  It  is  equally 
disastrous  in  theological  or  religious  controversy,  even  when  both 
parties  conscientiously  believe  they  are  defending  the  true  faith ; 
but  some  have  even  gone  so  far  in  their  blind  zeal  as  to  think  it 
justifiable  even  to  tell  willful  falsehoods  in  defense  of  the  faith ; 
forgetting  that  "  God  does  not  require  men  to  misuse  their  facul- 
ties for  Him,  nor  to  lie  to  others  nor  themselves  for  His  sake." 
To  see  the  truth  of  this,  it  is  only  necessary  to  listen  to  the 
debates  and  discourses  of  the  advocates  of  the  thousand  different 
creeds ;  and  when  you  take  up  their  books  and  analyze  the  sen- 
tences and  give  to  their  words  fixed  and  determined  significations, 
you  will  find  them  to  cross  their  tracks  as  often  as  Reynard  does 
when  pursued  by  the  hunter.  Hence,  as  he  says,  it  is  a  cheat  and 
abuse,  when,  in  the  same  discourse,  we  make  a  word  have  two 
different  meanings  in  order  to  carry  a  point.  Wherefore  all  men 
should  adopt  this  fundamental  rule :  not  to  take  words  for  entities 
until  we  have  clear  ideas  of  the  entities  themselves.  This  rule 
being  adopted,  any  one  can  give  the  ideas  their  words  stand  for. 
But  this  is  not  adhered  to  by  the  professing  world ;  they  have 
their  creed  —  the  ci'eed  must  he  supported  at  every  hazard  —  and 
teachers  of  each  sect  commence  torturing  what  they  claim  to  be 
God's  word  into  their  suppoi-t,  until  there  is  no  end  to  the  zig- 
zagging and  abuse  of  our  mother  tongue.  They  write  books,  and 
when  they  find  their  own  doctrines  do  not  harmonize,  they 
straightway  tell  you  not  to  scrutinize  its  j)(i^"is,  but  to  look  at  the 
spirit  of  it,  get  the  general  drift,  and  take  it  as  whole  ~  that  is, 
swallow  truth  and  falsehood  all  together.  A  late  Rev.  author,  of 
New  York  city,  has  written  a  large  book  to  prove  that  God  was 
in  Christ  and  out  of  himself,  and  that  God  was  outside  of  the 
visible  universe,  "  operating  on  the  chain  of  cause  and  effect,"  as 
it  were,  rolling  up  planets  and  tossing  them  around  like  the 
school-boy  does  his  ball !  And  still  this  same  author  adheres  to 
the  idea  of  the  infinity  and  omnipresence  of  Deity  ( ! )  and  wishes 
us  to  look  at  his  book  as  a  whole,  just  as  though  the  whole  were 


Illustrations.  89 

not  made  of  parts.  If  the  j^arts  will  not  connect  and  hang 
together,  the  whole  will  not.  If  we  cannot  depend  upon  the 
parts  that  make  the  whole,  how  can  we  depend  npon  the  whole  ? 
It  is  the  very  pith  and  essence  of  weakness  and  dishonesty  to  try 
to  cover  up  falsehood  in  this  way.  What,  then,  is  to  be  done,  we 
ask,  seeing  there  are  no  perfect  books  ?  I  answer :  take  only  the 
good  parts,  such  as  will  connect,  and  make  a  craft  of  that,  as  best 
we  can.  The  inadhesive  parts  and  unsound  planks  and  timbers 
are  of  no  advantage  to  the  bark.     Let  me  illustrate : 

I  engage  a  man  to  build  for  me  a  ship  in  which  I  expect  to 
cross  the  ocean.  He  builds  it,  and  finishes  it  with  a  handsome 
exterior.  I  send  a  scientific  man  to  examine  it,  to  ascertain  if  it 
is  sea-worth}'.  When  he  arrives  and  wishes  to  look  at  its  parts, 
the  mechanic,  knowing  there  are  faulty  pieces  or  joints,  says,  you 
must  not  examine  its  parts,  but  take  it  as  a  whole.  This  man 
would  be  just  as  consistent  as  the  one  who  would  ask  you  to  take 
his  book  as  a  whole  without  examining  its  parts.  It  would  be 
the  duty  of  the  man  sent  to  examine  to  know"  that  all  the  timbers 
were  sound  and  well  put  together  even  though  he  had  to  cut 
through  the  paint  and  varnish  for  that  purpose ;  else  I  could  not 
trust  myself  aboard  for  the  voyage.  If  rotten  timbers  were  found, 
they  would  have  to  be  taken  out,  and  sound  ones  replaced,  and  all 
unnecessary  pieces  removed ;  then  I  could  trust  the  whole  ship, 
because  the  parts  were  good.  I  should  consider  myself  as  dis- 
honest as  the  ship-builder,  were  I  to  advise  any  one  to  take  these 
discourses  as  a  whole  without  scrutinizing  their  parts,  and  if  one 
part  conflicts  with  another  part  set  it  aside  as  worthless. 

I  was  early  taught  to  cultivate  a  veneration  and  love  for  truth 
more  than  love  for  my  mother ;  so  that  now  I  feel  in  a  measure 
indifferent  to  any  position,  however  pleasing  and  plausible  it  may 
appear,  which  admits  of  a  doubt.  Perhaps  I  am  ultra ;  if  so,  it  is 
consoling  to  know  that  such  ultraism  cannot  have  a  very  danger- 
ous tendency.  In  my  humble  opinion  it  would  be  well  if  this 
were  the  condition  of  every  one  —  all  the  while  feeling  within 
ourselves 

"If  I  am  right  thy  grace  impart 
Still  iu  the  right  to  stay; 
If  I  am  wrong,  0  teach  my  heart 
To  find  that  better  way." 

I  have  thus  far  endeavored  to  keep  my  promise,  to  use  the 
same  word  steadily  to  represent  the  same  idea  or  object,  so  that 
12 


90  Christ  the  Son  of  God. 

none  may  be  Miisled  in  regard  to  my  position.  But,  alas!  for 
poor  iimnanity.  It  is  painfully  evident  that  some,  do  not  wish  to 
hear  tlie  plain  trutli  nttered,  because  it  comes  as  a  two-edged 
sword,  not  only  into  their  false  systems,  but  also  against  their  car- 
nal and  ungodly  lives.  Such  ones  prefer  the  pleasures  of  sense 
to  their  nnion  with  God,  or  the  spirits  of  "  just  men  made  per- 
fect," to  whom  the  words  of  the  Apostle  Paul  will  apply  :  "  They 
are  more  the  lovers  of  pleasure  than  the  lovers  of  God,  having 
the  form  of  Godliness  but  denying  the  power." — 2  Tim,  iii,  4. 
They  even  fearfully  fill  the  poet's  picture : 

'Now  conscience  chills  them,  and  now  joassion  burns, 

And  atlieism  and  religion  take  their  turns; 
Are  very  heathens  in  the  carnal  part, 

Yet  still  are  good,  sound  Christians  at  the  hearty 

But  knowing  as  I  do,  that  such  so-called  Christians  will  not 
yield  their  false  positions  as  long  as  they  can  find  in  Holy  Writ 
one  prop  to  sustain  them,  I  must  return  to  the  further  elucidation 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  show  up  some  of  the  inconsistencies  and 
incongruities  of  their  teachers. 

It  is  said  that  Christ  is  declared  to  be  "  the  resurrection  and 
the  life,"  and  if  Ann  Lee  has  manifested  His  second  coming  is  she 
also  the  resurrection  and  the  life  l  Most  certainly  ;  and  so  are  all 
Avho  ai-e  resurrected  by  coming  into  and  living  the  life  of  Christ. 
To  come  into  the  resurrection,  is  to  come  into  the  life  of  Christ. 
To  be  resurrected  is  to  be  raised  from  spiritual  death  into  spiritual 
life.  To  come  then  into  Christ  in  His  second  appearing  is  a  resur- 
rection as  effectual  as  it  was  in  His  first  appearing.  IS^ext,  I  am 
asked  if  Christ  did  not  have  an  advent  in  the  Adamic  dispensa- 
tion through  Setli,  Enoch,  and  N^oah,  and  in  the  Law  dispensation 
through  Abraham,  Moses,  and  Joshua,  and  afterward  through 
Jesus?  I  reply  :  If  Christ  w^as  a  pre-existent  spirit,  and  did  make 
those  advents,  what  consistency  is  there  in  calling  the  one  through 
Jesus  His  first  appearing  I ! 

The  simple  truth  is  this :  Christ  is  not  a  foreign  spirit,  but  the 
"  Lord's  Anointed."  Jesus  w^as  pre-eminently  the  Christ,  because 
He  was  anointed  and  appointed  to  lead  in  the  work  of  the  regen- 
eration and  salvation  of  the  human  race.  Other  anointed  persons, 
appointees  and  successors  in  Christ's  church,  imbued  or  clothed 
with  the  same  powers,  are  His  Vicegerents. 

When  Christ  w^as  about  to  leave  the  earth.  He  said  to  His  dis- 
ciples :  "  Yet  a  little  while  and  the  world  seeth  me  no  more,  but 


Elements  of  Chkistianity.  91 

ye  see  me." — John  xiv,  19.  I  am  asked,  if  the  man  Jesus  was  the 
Christ,  how  is  it  that  He  could  be  seen  by  His  disciples  and  not 
by  the  world  ?  I  answer :  The  disciples  themselves  saw  the  j:)erson 
of  Jesus  for  some  time  before  they  saw  the  Christ ;  that  is,  before 
they  saw  that  He  was  the  Lord's  anointed.  Seeing  the  exterior, 
and  comprehending  the  character,  mission,  or  office,  are  very  dis- 
tinct ;  so  there  were  a  great  many  worldlings  in  that  day,  who 
were  even  conversant  with  Jesus,  who  saw  not  that  He  was  the 
Christ;  they  saw  only  the  carpenter's  son,  while  the  enlightened 
saw  more  —  they  also  could  perceive  that  He  was  the  Lord's 
Anointed  or  Christ.     So  it  ever  will  be. 

I  am  asked  if  there  might  not  have  been  an  element  or  essence 
from  God  contained  in  the  person  of  Jesus,  otherwise  called  the 
blood  of  Christ,  which  we  must  drink  in  order  to  have  His  life  in 
us?  or  may  not  this  have  been  the  Christ  which  the  disciples 
saw,  that  the  world  could  not  see  ? 

I  answer,  not  at  all :  (1)  This  element  would  have  to  be  an 
entity  —  an  intelligent  something,  commissioned  of  God  for  a 
special  purpose  before  it  could  be  called  Christ.  (2)  If  it  were 
such  entity,  He  must  be  subdivided  for  all  to  drink  or  swallow 
Him(!)  and  this  would  destroy  the  entity.  An  element  is  a  con- 
stituent principle,  not  an  intelligence.  There  is  no  mystery  about 
drinking  the  blood  of  Christ ;  He  tells  us  it  is  His  word  and  doc- 
trine you  must  imbibe  —  "the  flesh  profiteth  nothing,  etc."  The 
element  wdiich  the  disciples  saw  was  this.  It  was  His  element  to 
do  His  Father's  wall  and  not  His  own — and  we  must  drink  in  this 
same  element  or  else  not  have  His  life  in  us — live  His  life — "the 
blood  is  the  life  thereof." 

I  have  now  analyzed  and  explained  all  the  texts  of  scripture 
that  have  been  presented  to  my  notice  which  are  claimed  and  sujd- 
posed  to  be  declarative  of  the  Deity  and  pi-e-existence  of  Christ ; 
and  it  must  be  seen,  that,  by  a  fair  and  rational  construction,  they 
not  only  fail  to  yield  it  any  support,  but  absolutely  deny  such 
hypothesis.  I  must  now  ex])ose  some  of  the  absurdities  that  pro- 
fessors have  been  led  into  by  striving  to  support  this  false  dogma ; 
after  which  I  will  quote  a  few  texts  from  a  multitude  which 
declare  the  true  idea  that  the  anointed  man,  Jesus,  was  the  Christ, 
and  that  He  was  not  the  Suj)reme,  but  simply  the  Son  of  God  by 
regeneration. 

The  absurdities  are  many  ;  and  yet  I  dislike  to  enumerate  even 
a  very  small  portion  of  them,  lest  I  might  be  censured  for  insin- 


92  Christ  the  Son  of  God. 

ceritj,  even  to  mention  them ;  for  they  are  glaringly  inconsistent. 
They  are  driven  to  such  extremely  absurd  conclusions  as  these : 
That  Jesus  was  the  Son  of  God  and  also  the  Father  of  God !  that 
lie  was  not  only  the  Son  and  Father,  but  "  He  was  very  God  of 
very  God ! "  that  He  was  Father  and  Son  at  the  same  time,  and 
whilst  He  was  both  the  Father  and  Son,  He  was  His  own  Father, 
making  God  His  grandfather !  that  infinite  as  He  was,  He  humbled 
and  contracted  His  being  to  the  germ  of  an  embryo  infant,  and 
was  afterward  born  of  a  virgin ;  and  yet,  the  mother  of  Jehovah 
had  to  make  the  usual  offerings  for  un cleanness  and  remain  with- 
out the  appointed  time  for  purification  for  bringing  her  own 
Maker  into  the  world !  and  also  that  she  remained  a  virgin  there, 
after !  that  God  grew  up  from  an  infant  of  a  span's  length,  to  five 
feet  ten,  and  then  permitted  some  wicked  men  to  kill  Him,  and 
then  make  this  murder  a  necessary  link  in  the  redemption  of 
man  !     Thus  the  pious  Watts  has  it  — 

"God  the  mighty  Maker  died." 

The  universe  of  course  was  left  without  a  God  while  He  was  dead  ; 
but  how  He  was  resuscitated,  we  are  not  explicitly  informed.  Of 
course,  the  least  creature  of  life  was  of  more  force  and  value  than 
a  dead  God.  All  this  (and  even  this  is  not  a  titlie  of  what  might 
be  said)  is  not  only  childish,  heathenish,  and  ludicrous,  but  it  is 
extremely  ridiculous. 

In  relation  to  Christ  as  the  Son,  they  are  equally  unfortunate. 
They  assert  that  Jesus  Christ  was  of  the  lineage  of  David,  and 
that  He  existed  before  David  himself  !  that  Christ  was  the  ^^  second 
Adam,"  but  existed  before  the  first  Adam ;  consequently  the 
second  was  the  first !  I  will  only  add,  in  this  connection,  that  the 
pre-existent  theory  destroys  all  the  types  of  Christ,  claimed  to  be 
such  by  professing  Christians,  from  the  fact  that  He  existed  prior 
to  them.  It  wdll  not  help  the  matter  to  say  He  has  existed  before 
them  as  God,  and  subsequently  as  the  Son  of  God  ;  for  it  is  asserted 
He  was  all  the  time  God.  Besides,  if  He  was  ever  the  supreme 
infinite  God,  he  could  not  at  any  time  be  any  thing  less.  Such 
subterfuge  would  only,  if  possible,  still  the  more  confuse  and 
complicate  the  doctrine.  It  would  be  adding  mystery  to  mystery, 
and  making  confusion  more  confounded  to  the  end  of  the  chapter. 

All  this  kind  of  sense,  or  I  should  say,  nonsense,  is  of  heathen 
origin,  and  has  been  introduced  since  the  falling  away  of  the  first 
Christian  church,  and  from  this  source  mystery  on  mystery  has 


Jesus  the  Christ.  93 

been  introduced  and  adopted  by  the  priesthood,  until  neither  the 
learned  nor  the  unlearned  can  understand  or  expound  the  faith  of 
their  own  churches. 

I  will  now  introduce  some  of  the  texts  declarative  of  the  simple 
and  easily-understood  truth  that  the  anointed  man  Jesus  was  the 
Christ,  and  to  whom  no  idea  of  pre-existence  can  be  consistently 
applied : 

"  Jesus  saith  to  His  disciples,  whom  do  men  say  that  I,  the  son 
of  man,  am  ?  They  answered,  some  say  John  the  Baptist,  some 
say  Elias,  etc."  "  He  saith  unto  them  whom  say  ye  that  I  amT'  — 
{I,  the  so?i  of  man,  am  f)  "  Simon  Peter  answered  and  said, 
Tliou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  Jesus  replied : 
"Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Barjona;  for  flesh  and  blood  hath  not 
revealed  it  unto  thee  (that  I,  Jesus,  am  the  Christ),  but  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven  "  (hath  done  it), — Matt.  xvi.  13,  17. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Jesus  was  careful  to  call  himself  the  son 
of  m.an,  it  would  seem,  in  order  to  prevent  a  misunderstanding. 
Again  :  The  high  priest  asked,  "  Art  thou  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  Blessed  ?  Jesus  answered  and  said,  /  amP  Did  Jesus  speak 
the  truth  or  not  ? 

Again :  "  O  fools,  and  slow  of  heart  to  believe  all  tliat  the 
prophets  have  spoken  !  Ought  not  Christ  to  liave  suffered  these 
things  and  enter  into  His  glory  ?  " — Luke  xxiv,  26,  Q%.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  observe  it  was  Christ  that  suffered — the  anointed 
man  Jesus. 

To  continue :  "  The  woman  saith  unto  Him,  I  know  that  Messias 
cometh,  which  is  called  Christ.  Jesus  saith  unto  her,  I  that 
speaketh  unto  thee  am  He  "  (am  the  Christ).  Could  there  be  any 
woi-ds  in  the  English  language  more  to  the  point?  less  ambiguous? 
Jesus,  the  man,  was  speaking,  and  says  to  her :  "  I  am  He,  the 
Christ  or  the  Messias  you  are  expecting  to  come."  He  did  not 
say,  a  pre-existent  foreign  spirit  in  Him  was  the  Christ ;  but  I,  the 
speaker,  am  He.  John  iv,  26,  and  v,  42.  The  Samaritans  said  : 
"  We  have  heard  Him  ourselves,  and  know  that  this  is  indeed  the 
Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world."  Also  :  "  Hath  not  the  scrip- 
ture said  that  Christ  cometh  of  the  seed  of  David  and  out  of  the 
town  of  Bethlehem  where  David  was  ?  " — John  vii,  45.  "  We 
believe  and  are  sure  thou  (Jesus)  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
living  God." — John  vi,  69.  "  But  these  things  are  written  that 
ye  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God." — John 
XX,  31.      "Who  is  a  liar  but  he  that  denieth  that  Jesus  is  the 


94  Christ  the  Son  of  God. 

Christ  ? " —  John  ii,  22.  Now  any  man,  professor  or  profane,  who 
pretends  to  believe  the  scriptures,  with  these  plain  declarations 
before  him,  that  the  man  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  must  be  convinced 
of  the  falsity  of  the  pre-existent  tlieor3%  Every  one  knows  that 
the  7nan  Jesus  did  not  pre-exist.  The  son  of  Mary  had  no  exist- 
ence previous  to  His  birth  ;  and  this  man  Jesus  is  declared  emphat- 
ically to  be  the  very  Christ  that  was  promised.  So  void  of  mystery 
is  this  subject  that  "  he  that  runs  may  read,  and  though  a  fool,  he 
need  not  err  therein."  But  more :  God  hath  sworn  with  an  oath 
(to  David)  that  of  the  fruit  of  his  loins,  according  to  the  flesh-, 
He  would  Taise  uj)  Christ.  Acts  ii,  30.  The  question  is,  did  God 
swear  the  truth  or  a  lie  ?  Do  we  not  all  know  what  is  meant  by 
coming  from  the  loins  of  a  progenitor  according  to  the  flesh? 
God,  not  only  said,  but  sioore  with  an  oath,  that  Christ  should  so 
come.  What  greater  pains  could  the  Almighty  Himself  have 
taken  than  did  the  spirit  through  the  inspired  one,  to  prevent  our 
being  ensnared  with  the  lying  schemes  of  anti-Christ,  and  made  to 
disbelieve  these  plain  and  positive  declarations  of  Holy  Writ  ? 

"  Therefore  let  all  the  house  of  Isi^ael  know  assuredly,  that  God 
hath  made  (as  He  had  sworn  to  do)  this  same  Jesus  whom  ye  have 
crucified,  both  Lord  and  Christ."  The  Apostle  Paul  alleges  "  that 
this  Jesus  whom  I  preach  unto  you  is  Christ." — Acts  xvii,  3. 
And  he  further  "  mightily  convinced  the  Jews,  and  that  publicly, 
showing  by  the  scriptures  (*'.  e.,  the  old  Testament)  that  Jesus 
was  the  Christ." — Acts  xviii,  28. 

Thus,  I  see  not  how  we  can  avoid  agreeing  that  I  have  demon- 
strated from  every  reliable  source  of  history,  reason,  and  revela- 
tion, the  truth  of  the  proposition  that  Christ  signifies  the  anointed : 
and  that  the  man  Jesus  was  that  anointed,  and  therefore  the 
Christ,  which  man  could  not  be  the  Supreme,  nor  one-third  of  the 
Supreme ;  nor  could  He  have  pre-existed  before  the  man  came  into 
being ;  nor  was  He  the  Christ,  only  jDrospectively,  until  He  was 
commissioned,  anointed,  and  apjDointed  for  the  special  purpose  of 
opening  the  way  of  salvation  and  redemption  to  a  lost  world, 
which  appointment  did  not  take  place  previous  to  the  baptism  of 
John. 

But  this  man  Jesus  was  the  Christ  of  whom  the  prophets 
prophesied  and  "  angels  sang,"  that  was  to  come ;  but  He  was  no 
high-created  being  from  the  "  pleroma  "  or  "  Christ-sphere  "  of 
high-created  intelligences  which  some  have  imagined,  and  palmed 
on  the  world.     But,   thus  swallowing  one  mystery  as  a  truth. 


Salvation's  "Way.  95 

opened  the  way  for  another,  and  another,  and  in  this  way  were 
all  the  host  of  mysteries  saddled  upon  the  church  and  sectarian 
world  —  as  history,  both  sacred  and  profane,  plainly  indicates  —  a 
small  portion  of  which  I  may  hereafter  notice. 

l^ot  being  able  to  detect  a  shadow  of  the  false  theory  in  the 
scriptures,  its  origin  must  be  looked  for  elsewhere ;  and  if  there 
are  any  who  yet  remain  unconvinced  of  its  falsity,  I  trust  I  shall 
be  able  to  satisfy  their  most  minute  inquiries ;  as  I  expect  to  pre- 
sent nothing  but  what  is  true  and  that  which  the  common  capacity 
can  understand  and  fathom. 

There  never  was  any  thing  done,  either  miraculously  or  other- 
wise, but  that  there  was  a  way  in  which  it  was  done ;  and  when 
the  vmi/  is  ascertained,  the  miracle  ceases.  The  process  of  salva- 
tion is  no  longer  a  miracle,  because  the  toay  to  obtain  it  has  been 
ascertained.  The  first  mortal  man  like  ourselves  who  ascertained 
it,  and  was  successful  in  its  accomplishment,  solved  the  problem 
and  showed  that  it  was  possible  for  all  Tnen/  and  the  first  mortal 
woman  who  was  successful  solved  the  problem,  and  showed  that 
it  was  possible  for  all  loonien.  The  Aj)ostle  Paul  said  :  "  It  be- 
hooved Christ  to  be  made  in  all  things  like  unto  His  brethren." — 
Heb.  ii,  17.  "Who  believes  this  ?  I  ask  not  the  simple  nor  foolish ; 
but  men  of  deepest  thoughts  and  most  critical  acumen.  Partic- 
ularly mark  the  language :  "  made  in  All  things  like  His  hrethren.''^ 
Acknowledge  this  to  be  true,  we  only  need  to  know  how  the 
hrethren  are  made  in  order  to  know  how  Christ  was  made.  What 
we  know  of  the  former  we  know  of  the  latter.  We  cannot  say 
two  watches  are  made  alike  in  all  respects  if  one  is  made  of  gold 
and  the  other  of  brass.  Again :  He  was  "  tempted  in  all 
points"  —  not  some  point-s  only,  but  in  all  points  "as  we  are.'' 
Now,  then,  if  we  know  how  we  are  tempted,  we  also  know  how 
He  was  tempted.  He  resisted  and  overcame  the  tempter,  and  we, 
in  order  to  continue  like  Him,  must  also  resist  and  overcome  the 
tempter,  or  else  be  excluded  from  His  presence.  This  is  the 
legitimate  conclusion.  If  no  mere  mortal  like  ourselves  had 
accomplished  the  work  of  his  salvation  to  a  successful  issue,  the 
way  would  still  be  the  great  unraveled  problem  of  the  world,  and 
the  fact  of  its  being  done,  would  still  be  among  the  enigmas, 
mysteries,  and  improbabilities,  if  not  the  impossibilities  to  the 
human  race.     We  might  then  in  sad  reality, 

"Make  dust  of  j^ajoer,  and  with  rainy  eyes 
"Write  sorrow  on  the  bosom  of  the  earth." 


D6  Christ  the  Son  of  God. 

But,  tlianks  to  God,  this  is  not  the  case ;  the  way  lias  been  learned 
and  tlie  thing  has  been  accomplished.  Jesus  was  the  first  man 
and  Ann  Lee  the  first  woman  who  were  successful ;  thus  we  have 
an  example  and  are  left  without  excuse.  Thej  solved  this  prob- 
lem for  the  human  race.  God  will  not  save  the  soul  of  any  one 
in  a  mysterious  way.  He  has  no  "  under-ground  railroad."  The 
way  —  the  plan  —  the  process  that  has  saved  one  soul,  will  save 
any  soul,  and  is  the  plan  that  will  save  all  souls.  The  way  —  the 
plan  —  the  process  that  will  damn  one  soul  will  damn  any  soul ; 
consequently  there  is  only  one  way  to  be  saved,  and  onl}^  one  way 
to  be  damned,  and  both  are  comprised  in  two  words,  viz. :  obedience, 
disobedience.  Jesus  Christ  was  Himself  saved  by  obedience  to  God ; 
while  disobedience  would  have  damned  Him,  just  the  same  as  it 
will  any  soul  of  man.  Do  any  say  God  does  not  speak  to  him  \ 
Simple  creatures  !  He  might  just  as  well  say  he  has  no  conscience ! 
To  obey  God  in  the  conscience,  where  we  are,  is  the  first  step  in 
the  right  direction ;  and  if  persisted  in  faithfully,  it  will  lead  us 
to  Christ's  church  or  body,  where  alone  full  redemption  is  attain- 
able, for  "thither  will  the  eagles  be  gathered  together,"- — ^Luke 
xvii,  37  —  where  all  will  be  thankful  to  yield  their  spirits  to  the 
guidance  of  the  more  advanced  in  spiritual  truth,  just  as  they 
would  the  intellect  to  the  guidance  of  a  su23erior  intellect  when  in 
pursuit  of  scientific  truth.  God  speaks  frequently  by  agency  —  but 
at  all  times  does  he  speak  internally  through  the  conscience.  But 
alas  !  it  is  too  seldom  regarded.  "  How  long,  saith  God,  will  the 
scorner  delight  in  his  scorning,  and  fools  hate  knowledge  ?  " 

"  Turn  ye  at  my  reproof ;  behold  I  will  pour  out  my  spirit  upon 
you,  and  make  known  my  words  unto  you :  I  have  called  and  ye 
have  refused.  I  have  stretched  out  my  hand  and  no  man  regarded ; 
but  ye  have  set  at  nought  all  my  counsel,  and  would  none  of  my 
reproof."- — ^Pr.  i,  22,26.  "But  ye  are  they  that  forsake  the 
Lord.  *  *  Therefore  will  I  number  you  to  the  sword,  and  ye 
shall  all  bow  down  to  the  slaughter ;  because  when  I  called  ye 
did  not  answer ;  when  I  spake  ye  did  not  hear,  but  did  evil 
before  mine  eyes,  and  did  choose  that  wherein  I  delighted  not." — 
Isa.  Ixv,  12.  Thus  God  pleads,  promises,  threatens  every  day, 
but  many  disobey.  Therefore,  let  none  say  that  God  does  not 
plead  with  them  in  every  act  of  their  lives,  when  to  hearken  and 
obey  would  be  the  very  salvation  that  Christ  gained.  But  to 
disobey  is  to  bring  upon  ourselves  the  very  damnation  which  He 
escaped.     0 !  then,  as  you  desire  your  union  with  God,  or  hope 


Cheist  the  Son  of  God.  97 

for  heaven,  or  to  escape  the  penalty  of  the  wicked,  hearken  to  His 
kind,  affectionate,  and  parental  voice  : 

"  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  me ; 
for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  of  heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  to  your 
souls." 

33 


TYPES  OF  CHRIST. 


"  But  God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the  world  to  con- 
found the  wise  j  and  God  hath  chosen  the  weak  things  of  the  world 
to  confound  the  things  which  are  mighty. '''' —  I  Cor.  i,  27. 

Notwithstanding  the  great  veneration  that  people  seem  to  have 
for  truth,  it  is  still  a  difficult  pill  to  swallow  when  it  interferes  with 
any  idol  of  the  human  heart,  or  crosses  any  cherished  or  loved 
opinion.  Still  the  cry  is:  Let  tis  have  trvtk.  Our  object  is,  to 
endeavor  to  show  that  all  the  types  and  symbols  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment scriptures  have  their  fulfilhnent  in  the  Bridegroom  and 
Bride  —  in  Chrisfs  first  and  second,  appearing  —  not  such  a 
Bride  as  some  have  made  from  Rev.  xxi,  2,  who  give  this  name 
to  the  Church ;  but  a  real  counterpart  for  the  Bridegroom. 

The  apostle  does  not  say  that  he  saw  the  Bride  coming  down 
from  heaven,  in  the  form  of  a  Church,  but  the  "  New  Jerusalem 
coming  down  adorned  as  a  Bride."  But  the  Bridegroom  was  a 
man :  the  Bride  must  be  a  woman  —  even  a  woman  clothed  with 
the  sun,  and  the  moon  under  her  feet. —  Rev.  xii,  1. 

Having  mentioned  the  second  appearing,  we  Mnll  quote  the 
promise  (Heb.  ix,  28) :  "  So  Christ  was  once  offered  to  bear  the 
sins  of  many  ;  and  unto  them  that  look  for  Him  shall  He  appear 
the  second  time  without  sin  unto  salvation,"  we  will  further  add 
that,  in  order  to  have  a  second  appearance,  it  is  not  necessary  that 
the  same  identical  flesh  and  bones  should  return,  neither  that  it 
should  be  the  same  gender.  In  fact  it  were  more  apropos  that 
the  gender  should  be  different  in  order  to  have  co-ordinate  coun- 
terparts. The  first,  the  bridegroom  ;  the  second,  the  bride.  This 
is  well  exemplified  by  Christ  himself,  who  said  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist :  "  This  is  Elias  that  was  to  come." 

The  second  appearing  consists  in  the  reappearance  of  the  same 
gift,  spirit,  power  and  substance,  for  the  same  purposes  —  to  exe- 
cute and  carry  out  the  same  work.  John  was  the  second  coming 
of  Elijah,  because  he  came  in  the  same  gift  and  power  of  that 
prophet.  And  the  reappearance  in  and  manifestation  by  Ann 
Lee  of  the  same  spirit,  testimony,  Kfe,  power  and  wisdom  which 


Mysteries  Explained.  99 

was  exhibited  by  Christ,  as  much  constituted  His  second  appear- 
ing as  that  which  constituted  John  the  second  appearance  of 
Elias.     Tliis  is  plain. 

And  now  we  here  boldly  testify  that  all  the  fruits  shown  forth 
by  Jesus  in  His  anointed  capacity  did  reappear,  in  the  anointed 
Ann,  and  show  that  she  was  baptized  with  the  same  spirit.  Such, 
then,  manifestly,  was  Christ's  second  coming.  Thus  are  the  two 
foundation  pillars  established,  to  whom  the  Scripture  types  refer, 
w^iich  we  will  now  proceed  to  set  before  you,  and  compare  with 
the  substance  they  were  designed  to  represent. 

It  is  said  in  Rev.  x,  7,  "  That  in  the  days  of  the  voice  of  the 
seventh  angel,  when  he  should  begin  to  sound,  the  mystery  of 
God  should  be  finished."  To  finish  a  mystery  is  to  explain  it, 
which  is  a  part  of  the  work  now  before  us.  We  need  not  seek, 
nor  have  we  any  need  to  know,  the  precise  time  of  the  formation 
of  our  pla7iet,  nor  the  origin  of  primal  man ;  these  are  hidden 
from  the  world,  and  we  have  no  revelation  disclosing  the  secret. 
God  hath  revealed  by  Moses,  recorded  in  Gen.  i,  that  in  the 
beginning  he  did  thus  and  so,  but  when  that  beginning  was,  no 
man  knoweth.  But  it  is  proper  that  man  should  know  when  the 
"  old  heavens  and  earth  were  created  that  were  to  pass  away," 
and  when  "  all  things  were  to  become  new  and  all  things  of  God." 
This  can  be  ascertained  by  noticing  the  generations  of  the  heavens 
and  earth,  treated  of  in  the  second  chapter,  which  has  special 
reference  to  man,  and  is  given  for  our  instruction.  Here  we  may 
easily  arrive  at  the  precise  time  of  the  first  called  or  created  man 
from  the  primal  structure,  or  "  dust  of  the  ground "  of  animal 
promiscuity. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  first  chapter  treats  mostly  of 
the  creation  of  the  universe  in  six  periods  of  time  called  days,  and 
if  it  is  observed  that  the  second  chapter  treats  of  the  generations 
of  the  earth  with  respect  to  man,  we  then  hold  the  key  to  unlock 
the  mystery,  and  have  no  difiiculty  with  the  commands  given  to 
man  in  the  first  chapter,  and  those  given  to  the  first  called  man 
in  the  second  chapter,  of  Edenic  order,  with  whom  Ave  very 
I'eadily  perceive  was  God's  first  covenant,  called  the  "  old 
covenant,"  which  was  the  type  of  the  new,  in  that,  man  was 
raised  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  condition. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  God's  special  dealings  with  his 
creature  man.  "  He  breathed  into  him  the  breath  of  (spiritual) 
life  (the  inspiration  of  lives),  and  he  became  a  living  soul."    Here, 


100  Types  of  Christ. 

it  is  evident,  is  the  comineiicement  of  the  types  of  Christ.  The 
first  called  man  was  the  first  type,  and  corresponds  completely 
with  the  second  called  man,  Christ,  wlio  is  his  antitype.  The 
first  "  a  living  soul ;"  the  second  "  a  quickening  spirit."  The  first 
"  to  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth  ;"  the  second  to  multiply  and 
replenish  the  heavens.  The  first  called  man  was  the  head  of  the 
orderly,  natural,  Adamic  church ;  the  second  called  man  was  the 
head  of  the  Spiritual  church. 

Cain  was  the  first  apostate  from  the  Adamic  church,  and  was 
the  type  of  Judas,  the  first  apostate  from  the  Spiritual  Christian 
Church.  The  first  church  arose  from  the  lower  order  of  the 
world  to  that  of  orderly  generation.  The  second,  or  spiritual, 
arose  from  the  plane  of  orderly  generation  to  that  of  regeneration. 
The  first  forsook  the  old,  disorderly,  animal  world.  The  second 
forsook  the  orderly,  natural  world  for  the  spiritual.  The  twain 
were  to  become  one  flesh  in  the  natural  order  —  the  twain  to 
become  one  spirit  in  the  spiritual  order- — having  risen  above, 
and  forsaken  the  natural,  "  father,  mother,  brother,  sister,  houses, 
lands,  and  all  that  pertains  to  that  partial  relation." 

Thus  the  types  agree  with  their  antitypes,  and  show  clearly  the 
distinction  between  the  two  orders.  From  our  basis,  it  will  be 
perceived  that  the  first  man  Adam,  who  was  taken  from  the 
pre- Adamic  body  to  institute  a  new  order  of  things,  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  "  old  heavens  and  earth  that  were  to  pass  away ;"  — 
having  no  reference  whatever  to  this  planet,  being 

"into  heaps  of  ashes  turned 
When  Heaven  itself  the  wandering  chariot  burned," 

but  to  the  earthly  order  then  created,  at  which  time  all  those  who 
come  into  this  order,  and  embraced  this  gospel,  were  "  Sons  and 
daughters  of  God." 

As  Adam  was  raised  up  from  among  the  brethren  of  the  pre- 
Adamic  body  to  establish  the  old  heavens  and  earth,  so  Jesus  was 
raised  up  from  among  the  brethren  "  of  the  Mosaic  body  to  estab- 
lish "the  new  heavens  and  earth."  And  all  who  embrace  this 
order  are  the  sons  and  daughters  of  God,  and  sing  and  shout  for 
joy  at  the  establishment  of  this  new  order. 

Thus  far  we  see  the  types  and  antitypes  are  perfect,  and  as  the 
first  called  man  was  a  perfect  t}']3e  of  the  second  called  man,  so 
Eve,  the  first  called  woman,  was  a  perfect  type  of  the  second 
called  woman.     As  the  first  Eve  was  taken  out  of  the  sleeping 


Types  and  Antitypes.  101 

body  of  Adam  —  from  among  the  disorderly  flesli  there  —  to  be 
witli  the  man  Adam  one  flesh,  so  the  second  Eve  was  taken  out 
of  the  sleeping  body  of  the  world  —  from  among  the  disorderly 
flesh  there  —  to  be  with  Christ  one  spirit.  Thus  do  the  types  and 
antitypes  agree. 

A  letter  from  our  pen  is  not  the  antitype  of  the  pen,  but  a 
printed  letter  is  the  antitype  of  the  metal  face  —  their  faces  must 
correspond.  So  it  is  with  all  types  and  their  antitypes;  their 
faces  must  agree.  Tlien,  if  one  is  understood,  the  otlier  will  be 
also.  While  the  first  Adam  and  Eve  of  the  natural  order  were 
types  of  the  second  Adam  and  Eve  of  the  spiritual  order,  tliey 
could  not  have  been  types  of  a  pre-existent  Christ  nor  Christ 
spirit,  as  this  would  make  the  type  come  after  the  antitype,  which 
is  impossible. 

Let  us  repeat,  that  the  first  man,  Adam,  was  made  of  the 
ground  on  which  pre-Adam  or  Adamkind  stood,  and  was  thence 
called  a  "  living  soul.'"  The  second  was  made  of  the  ground  on 
which  the  Mosaic  body  stood,  and  was  called  a  "  quickening 
spirit."  And  the  first  Eve  was  taken  from  the  flesh  of  the  sleep- 
ing Adamic  body  for  a  help-meet  for  the  first  Adam,  and  was 
called  the  "  Mother  of  all  (tlie)  living ; "  that  is,  all  living  the 
higher,  natural  life.  The  second  Eve  —  Ann  Lee  —  was  taken 
from  the  flesh  of  the  sleeping  anti-christian  body,  for  a  helper 
for  the  second  Adam,  Christ  Jesus ;  and  she  is  called  the  Mother 
of  all  living  the  higher,  spiritual  life.  Thus  we  see  what  becomes 
of  the  "  wisdom  of  this  world,"  who  have  three  male  deities, 
with  neither  type  nor  anti-type. 

Such  metaphorical  expressions  as  we  have  noticed  are  very 
common.  How  often  do  spiritual  leaders  inquire  what  ground 
we  stand  upon  ?  How  often  cite  to  the  "  hole  of  the  pit  whence 
we  were  digged,  and  the  rock  whence  we  were  hewn."  The 
simple  truth  is,  God  made  man  out  of  the  ground  then^  as  He 
"  digs  them  out  of  the  pit  and  hews  them  out  of  the  rock,  now. 
Whoso  is  wise  shall  understand  these  things,  and  whoso  is  pru- 
dent shall  know  them,"  although  they  may  confound  the  wisdom 
of  the  wise  ! 

But  it  is  said  :  "  The  Bridegroom  hath  the  Bride,"  long  before 
Ann  Lee  had  existence  ;  and  we  are  asked  :  How  could  she,  who 
yet  had  no  existence,  fulfill  the  conditions  ?  In  answer  we  would 
say,  he  had  her  prospectively.  Such  expressions  are  frequent  in 
holy  writ :  "  This  day  I  have  begotten  thee  ; "  "  Before  Abraham 


102  Types  of  Christ. 

was  I  am ;  "  but  which  simply  means  I  am  before  what  Abraham 
was. 

Joshua  said  the  Lord  had  dehvered  the  enemy  into  his  hands, 
before  he  commenced  the  battle.  Just  so  the  Bridegroom,  Jesus, 
had  the  Bride  Ann,  prospectively,  but  was  as  sure  of  her  as 
Joshua  was  that  he  would  conquer  the  enemy.  This  is  true, 
although  it  be  to  the  "  Jews  a  stumbling  block,"  and  to  the 
Greeks  "  foolishness."  It  may  be  observed  that  Ann  Lee,  of 
Manchester,  England,  was  the  first  person  that  was  baptized  and 
quickened  into  the  spiritual  life  of  Christ,  to  rise  out  of  nature's 
loss  and  order,  to  live  above  these,  and  to  proclaim  the  higher 
life  to  the  world.  Hence  she  has  the  honor  of  being  the  Bride, 
the  "  Lamb's  wife."  Being  ignorant  of  this  fact,  some  have  sup- 
posed that  the  Bride,  which  the  Bridegroom  had,  was  a  spirit 
from  some  foreign  world  which  he  had  in  Him ;  but  it  is  time 
that  the  mystery  of  such  a  chimera  was  disposed  of ;  to  admit 
which,  would  spoil  the  agreement  of  all  types  and  their  anti- 
ty]3es. 

When  the  indisputable  truth  becomes  known,  that  Christ,  iu 
any  age  of  the  world,  was  no  mysterious  being,  but  simply  a  God- 
anointed,  or  which  is  the  same  thing,  a  God  appointed  or  com- 
missioned agent  for  a  special  purpose,  all  this  chimerical,  mj'S- 
terious  chaff  will  be  blown  away,  no  more  to  disturb  a  dreaming 
world. 

Abraham  and  Sarah  were  types  of  Jesus  and  Ann ;  not  only 
in  their  obedience  to  the  Adamic  Gospel,  but  they  were  of  one 
stock  or  race  —  begotten  and  born  alike,  equal  as  to  mode  of 
existence,  as  man  and  woman  may  be  heads  of  a  family 
"Abraham  hearkened  to  the  voice  of  Sarah."  But  what  did  this 
hearkening  typify  ?  It  was,  that,  in  the  new  covenant,  the  man 
should  hearken  to  the  woman  ;  even  so  it  is.  In  the  second  appear- 
ing, where  a  "  woman  compassed  the  man,"  all  hearkened  to  the 
Bride,  Ann  ;  while,  under  the  old  covenant,  the  law  is,  "  Thy 
desire  shall  be  to  thy  husband,  and  he  shall  rule  over  thee." 

Millions  find  this  true  to  their  sorrow,  and  see  no  way  of  relief ; 
but  there  is  a  way.  To  all  who  wish  deliverance  from  such  bond- 
age we  would  say  :  Leave  the  rudimental  —  come  up-stairs  into 
the  new  covenant. 

Some  orthodoxans  tell  us,  in  justification  of  the  saved-by-faith 
doctrine,  that  Abraham's  faith  was  "  counted  to  him  for  righteous- 
ness."    So  it  was,  because  it  loas  accompanied  hy  good  ivorks. 


A  Full  Sacrifice.  103 

"  Faith  without  works  is  dead  ;  "  and  who  can  be  saved  by  a 
dead  faith  ?  They  tell  ns  also,  that  the  offering  up  of  the  ram  was 
symbolical  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  "  Lamb  slain  from  the  foun- 
dation of  the  world."  Kow  the  theological  student  is  consider- 
ably advanced  when  he  can  tell  the  difference  between  a  typical 
ram  and  a  typical  lamb.     Then  there  is  some  hope  of  him. 

If  they  had  told  us  that  the  ram  offered  up  was  a  symbol, 
that  the  ram  that  had  ruled  the  world  from  Adam  to  Christ  had 
to  be  slain  and  burned  up ;  they  would  nearer  have  approached 
the  truth.  But  Sarah  called  Abraham  her  Lord,  or  head.  So  Ann 
called  Jesus.  Not  only  so,  they  were  types  in  sacrificing  that 
which  was  most  dear  to  them,  typifying,  that,  in  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  that  which  was  most  dear  to  the  natural  man  and  woman 
must  be  sacrificed. 

But  you  will  say,  Isaac  was  not  sacrificed ;  but  the  ram  was 
taken  in  his  stead.  This  is  true,  and  agrees  perfectly  with  the 
antitype.  Isaac  was  saved,  and  Abraham  was  promised  an  hun- 
dred fold  in  the  seed  of  Isaac.  So  it  is  now.  All  the  Abrahams 
and  Sarahs  that  come  into  the  gospel  of  Christ  must  offer  up  their 
little  Isaacs,  who  will  thus  be  saved ;  and  they  shall  receive  an 
"  hundred  fold  of  Isaacs  and  other  gospel  relations,  and  in  the 
world  to  come  eternal  life."  Such  is  the  promise  of  Christ  —  the 
type  and  antitype  complete.  But  the  ram  was  put  on  the  sacrific- 
ial altar,  and  was  consumed  with  fire.  This  typified  that  the  ani- 
mal passions  must  be  sacrificed  and  utterly  consumed  by  the  fire 
of  Christ's  gospel.    Could  types  and  antitypes  be  more  complete  % 

The  rite  of  circumcision  typified  that  in  Christ  the  works  of 
the  flesh  must  be  cut  off.  The  mystery  makers  contend  that  they 
were  types  of  Christ,  because  "  Isaac  was  begotten  by  promise." 
Isaac  was  not  begotten  by  promise.  He  was  begotten  by  Abra- 
ham —  "  Abraham  begat  Isaac."  There  is  no  mystery  about  it. 
He  and  Sarah  propagated  children  according  to  the  law  of  gener- 
ation. Jesus  and  Ann  propagated  children  according  to  the  law 
of  re-generation.  The  first  natural ;  the  second  spiritual.  Thus 
were  Abraham  and  Sarah  the  types  of  Christ  Jesus  and  Ann 
Lee,  in  being,  in  call  and  work,  whose  offspring  are  the  seed  of 
the  "  Free  Woman,"  who  are  "  the  weak  things  of  the  world, 
whom  God  hath  chosen  to  confound  the  things  which  are 
mighty." 

Moses  and  Zipporah  were  plain  and  perfect  types  of  Christ  in 
His  first  and  second  appearing.     "We  will  repeat  what  Moses  said 


lOtt  Types  of  Christ. 

to  the  fathers  :  "  A  prophet  shall  the  Lord  raise  np  unto  you  of 
your  hrethreii  like  unto  me.  Him  shall  ye  hear  in  all  things 
whatsoever  He  saith." — Acts  iii,  22.  Some,  in  order  to  keep 
this  mystery  from  being  exj^lained,  have  left  or  omitted  the  words 
"of  your  brethren  "  in  their  writings  ;  and,  also,  where  it  is  said 
the  "  sanctifier  and  sanctified  are  all  of  one  "  the  preposition  of 
has  been  omitted,  lest  we  should  get  a  peep  into  the  fact  that  they 
were  of  one  stock  or  race,  and  so  save  one  prop  to  the  miraculous 
stor}^  —  well  knowing  that,  if  they  were  of  one  stock,  this  would 
be  wij)ed  out.     We  have  no  apology  to  offer  for  such  omissions. 

The  preposition  clearly  shows  they  were  of  one  race — the 
human.  But  Moses  not  only  truthfully  declared  from  whence 
Christ  should  arise,  but  he  was  an  eminent  type  of  Christ,  in  that 
he  was  called  to  deliver  his  people  from  Egyptian  bondage.  Some 
say  jMoses  was  not  a  perfect  t)^e  of  Christ  —  an  imperfect  type 
is  no  type  at  all.  But  Moses  was  a  perfect  type  of  Christ.  He 
was  begotten  by  a  man,  and  born  of  a  woman ;  so  vms  Jesus.  He 
was  raised  up  from  among  the  brethren  ;  so  was  Jesus.  He  was 
called  to  deliver  his  people  from  Egyptian  bondage ;  Jesus  was 
called  to  deliver  them  from  the  bondage  of  sin.  Also  Zipporah 
was  a  type  of  Ann.  She  was  raised  up  from  among  the  Sisters  ;  so 
was  Ann.  She  forsook  her  people  and  followed  Moses,  suffering  the 
toils  of  the  M'ilderness,  while  journeying  to  the  promised  land,  and 
became  a  Mother  in  Israel.  So  Ann  Lee  forsook  her  own  people 
and  followed  Christ  through  the  sufferings  and  toils  of  the  wil- 
derness of  this  world  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven's  sake,  and, 
thus  conjoined  to  Him,  became  the  Mother  of  spiritual  Israel. 

Of  animals  and  things,  we  may  go  through  the  good  book  and 
find  agreement  in  types  and  symbols  throughout.  The  "two 
cherubim  covering  the  mercy  seat  with  their  -svings,  and  their 
faces  one  toward  another,"  were  excellent  types  of  Christ  Jesus 
and  Ann.  They  were  wrought  gold  of  beaten  work  ;  not  only 
so,  but  were  out  of  one  piece.  So  plainly  does  every  type  repre- 
sent the  pure,  simple  truth,  that  the  two  foundation  pillars,  male 
and  female,  in  whom  they  have  their  fulfillment,  were  alike  and 
equal  in  all  respects  —  no  more  mystery  about  the  one  than  the 
other. 

The  two  silver  trumpets,  the  two  tables  of  the  Covenant,  the 
two  olive  trees,  the  two  olive  branches,  the  King  and  Queen,  the 
son  and  daughter,  etc.,  all  have  their  accomplishment  in  Jesus 


The    Known    Quantity.  105 

Christ  and  Ann  Lee,  the  Bridegroom  and  Bride  of  the  new  cre- 
ation of  God. 

We  look  in  vain  among  the  lower-floor  chm'ches  and  our 
theoloo-ical  seminaries  to  find  agreement  of  the  types  with  their 
antitypes.  With  all  their  learning  and  worldly  wisdom,  they  only 
pile  mystery  on  mystery;  and  the  further  we  follow  them  the 
more  dense  the  fog  grows,  until  we  reach  a  cloud  of  impenetrable 
darkness. 

"  But  God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the  world  to  con- 
found the  w4se,  and  the  weak  things  to  confound  the  mighty." 
Thus,  under  the  seventh-sounding  angel,  this  mystery  of  God  is 
finished.  It  would  seem  that  enough  had  now  been  said  to  satisfy 
the  most  carping  critic  of  the  falsity  of  the  miraculous  statement, 
and  of  the  far-fetched,  foreign  Christ  theory.  It  is  a  rule  in 
mathematics  that,  when  there  are  unknown  quantities  to  be  found, 
they  must  be  ascertained  from  quantities  which  are  known.  The 
same  is  true  in  logic  —  truths  may  be  ascertained  by  reasoning  a 
posteriori  as  well  as  the  contrary.  Types  and  antitypes  come  directly 
under  this  rule ;  so  if  we  know  what  the  antitype  is  we  may  learn 
what  the  type  is,  and  vice  versa.  Thus  when  we  see  a  printed 
letter  we  know  what  the  face  of  the  type  was ;  or  when  we  see  a 
type's  face  we  know  what  the  letter  will  be.  The  question  recurs  : 
Have  you  known  data  ?  Ans.  —  We  have.  Of  types  we  have 
shown,  in  person  and  w^ork. 

Of  the  antitypes  we  have  Ann  Lee,  to  whom  the  female  types 
pointed,  and  in  whom  they  have  their  fulfillment.  She  is  the 
known  quantity,  whom  anti-Christ  cannot  mystify.  We  know 
she  came  into  being  by  the  same  law  of  all  her  typical  females. 
The  two  must  agree.  So,  in  like  manner,  of  types  we  know  the 
law  by  which  they  came  into  being,  and,  from  this,  the  law  which 
brought  the  antitype  Christ  into  being.  There  is  no  possibility 
of  evading  this  conclusion.  And  as  Elijah  was  a  type  of  Christ, 
and  left  his  mantle  behind  for  Elisha,  so  it  was  with  his  antitype 
Christ,  and  so  it  continues  to  this  day.  "  All  power  to  save  was 
committed  to  the  Son,  who  committed  the  same  to  His  successors." 

Jesus  testified  :  "  All  that  the  Father  gave  me  have  I  given 
them."  And  the  call  is  now,  to  the  whole  world,  of  every  nation, 
tongue  and  kindred,  to  come ;  accept  Christ's  terms  and  be  saved. 
To  be  saved  does  not  mean  to  be  saved  in  sin,  hut  from  sin  ;  and 
all  its  deathly  and  damning  efiects,  which  can  only  be  done  by  for- 
saking the  world,  finding  God's  order  of  finite  agencies,  and  there 
14 


106  Types  of  Christ. 

confessing,  forsaking,  and  repenting  of  all  sin,  and  becoming 
"  crucified  to  the  world  and  the  world  crucitied  to  us,"  and,  hence- 
forward, living  the  life  of  the  Redeemer. 

We  purpose  further  to  institute  a  comparison  between  the 
modes  of  the  first  and  the  second  appearing  of  Christ,  showing 
their  similarity  as  well  as  their  equality  in  person  and  commis- 
sion. But,  by  way  of  leader,  will  remark  that,  from  what  has 
been  previously  said,  it  must  be  perceived  that  in  every  succeeding 
order  among  men,  fi-om  the  first  record  to  the  present  time,  the 
instruments  must  have  arisen  out  of  a  previous  body  by  a  higher 
unfolding  and  increased  inspiration  of  the  sj)irit  of  God;  and 
hence  every  order  has  superseded  the  j)revious  one. 


CHRIST'S  SECOND  APPEARING. 


Witness,  as  shown,  the  creation  or  call  of  Adam  and  Eve  from 
primal,  animal  Adamic  body  —  the  rite  of  marriage  first  institu- 
ted —  and  orderly  generation  enjoined  on  pain  of  the  displeasure 
of  the  Creator.  See  this  order  building  and  establishing  the  first 
old  heavens  and  earth  that  were  to  pass  away,  and  shadowing 
forth  the  new.  See  what  gospel  was  preached  and  lived,  by  those 
who  constituted  the  Adamic  church  —  Seth,  ISToah,  and  others, 
until  Abraham,  with  whom  God  renewed  His  covenant,  shadow- 
ing forth  the  increasing  steps  in  the  new  and  everlasting  covenant. 

Circumcision  was  instituted  under  the  old  covenant,  which  is  a 
type  of  what  should  take  place  in  the  new  that  of  cutting  off  all 
the  fleshly  works  of  generation  and  becoming  "  eunuchs  for  the 
kingdom  of  heaven's  sake."  Advances  were  made  in  the  old 
heaven  gospel  which  shadowed  forth  the  gospel  travel  in  the  new, 
and  it  was  practiced  and  lived  until  Moses,  when  God's  covenant 
was  again  renewed  with  additional  sacrifices  and  self-denial,  and 
which,  being  kept,  brought  renewed  blessings.  These  were 
enjoined  and  kept  by  some,  with  little  modification,  until  Christ, 
with  whom  tlie  new  covenant  was  made.  The  substance  now 
appeared,  and  the  work  of  forming  the  new  heavens  and  earth 
was  begun  —  the  creation  of  the  new  world,  which  the  apostle 
says  truly,  was  made  by  Him,  which  we  now  enjoy  with  increas- 
ing light  and  power  in  His  second  appearing  in  Ann  Lee.  Thus 
we  see  what  God's  uniform  law  and  order  are :  First  the  Adamic 
arose  out  of  the  dust  of  the  pre-Adamic  body  ;  the  Abrahamic  out 
of  the  Adamic ;  the  Mosaic  out  of  the  Abrahamic  ;  and  the 
Christian  out  of  the  Mosaic ;  and  the  second  appearing  in  Ann, 
out  of  the  so-called  Christian,  which  was  fast  asleep  when  she 
was  taken  out  of  that  body ;  and  it  is  snoring  yet 

We  will  now  call  attention  to  the  history  and  biography  of 
Jesus,  and  examine  the  manner  of  His  call,  to  which  we  beg 
especial  attention.  It  so  happens  that  we  have  no  reliable  history 
of  Him  until  he  was  about  thirty  years  old  ;  precisely  what  kind 


108  Christ's  Second  Appearing. 

of  life  lie  lived  previously  to  tliat  time  is  unknown  to  history  and 
mankind  ;  nor  is  it  necessary  that  we  should  know  it ;  but  John  the 
Baptist  doubtless  knew  all  a]:)out  it,  l)y  His  confession,  as  well  as 
Jane  Wardley  knew  all  about  Ann's.  In  turning  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment we  find  the  gospels  beginning  with  the  call  of  God  to  one 
John,  the  son  of  Zacharias,  who  was  to  be  the  forerunner,  to  pre- 
pare the  way  for  the  man  Jesus,  the  son  of  Joseph.  John  did  not 
come  with  a  new  gospel,  but  in  the  power  and  spirit  of  Elias,  and 
"  was  that  Elias,"  to  turn  the  hearts  of  the  children  to  the  fathers, 
to  revive  the  spirit  of  Moses'  gospel  or  law,  from  which  many 
had  backslidden  —  to  administer  the  gift  of  repentance  and  for- 
giveness of  sins  to  all  such  as  would  honestly  confess  and  forsake 
them,  and  return  to  the  law.     The  account  reads  thus : 

"  The  word  of  God  came  to  John,  the  son  of  Zacharias,  in  the 
wilderness ;  "  hence  it  is  truly  said  "  a  man  sent  of  God,"  just  as 
.Christ  was.  God  sent  John  for  one  purpose,  and  Christ  for 
another,  both  being  God-commissioned  agents  —  one  to  revive  an 
old  institution,  the  other  to  create  a  new  one ;  one  to  baptize 
with  water,  the  other  with  fire.  It  is  further  recorded  :  "  Multi- 
tudes came  confessing  their  sins  (violations  of  the  law),  and  were 
baptized  into  the  spirit  of  repentance."  And  here  is  where  we 
get  the  first  reliable  account  of  Jesus,  who  was  among  the  breth- 
ren there,  and  who  came  for  the  same  purpose  that  the  rest  did — 
to  acknowledge  the  gift  of  God  in  John,  confess  and  repent,  as  it 
was  impossible  that  He  should  supersede  John  without  acknowl- 
edging and  accepting  the  gift  of  God  in  him,  who  was  as  yet 
before  Him. 

From  St.  John's  account,  it  would  seem  that  the  Baptist  did 
not  know  Jesus  to  be  the  chosen  one  that  was  to  supersede  him, 
even  from  His  confession,  as  he  said,  "I  knew  Him  not." — John 
i,  32.  But  He  was  pointed  out  by  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Then  says  John  :  "  I  saw  and  bear  record  that  this  is  the  Son  of 
God."  It  w^ould  be  warping  the  record,  as  the  Gnostics  have 
done,  to  say  the  descending  Spirit  was  the  Christ,  for  John  testi- 
fied he  knew  the  coming  Christ  stood  among  them,  before  He  was 
pointed  out  to  him  by  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Jesus  could  no  more  have  superseded  John,  without  submission 
to  the  order  of  God  in  him,  than  Ann  Lee  could  have  super- 
seded that  of  James  and  Jane  Wardley,  without  confessing, 
acknowledging,  and  complying  with  the  order  of  which  they 
were  the  heads.     Thus  we  may  see  the  first  steps  that  Jesus  took 


Christian  Humility.  109 

toward  the  priesthood  or  Christship  was  His  childlike  humility  in 
bending  before  the  gift  of  God  in  John,  setting  us  an  example 
in  the  very  beginning  of  His  v/ork.  We  have  no  more  right  to 
dispute  Jesus'  confession  to  John  than  we  have  to  dispute  His  being 
baptized  l)v  him  unto  repentance,  of  which  His  soul-melting 
prayer  on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan  gives  ample  proof.  It  is  all 
plain. 

Do  any  of  us  think  that  Ave  can  get  to  heaven  with  less 
humility  than  Jesus  did  ?  If  we  do  we  are  wofully  mistaken. 
He  is  our  exemplar,  and  as  He  worked  out  His  salvation  so  must 
we  ;  and  we  shall  be  called  to  take  no  mortifying  step,  that  our 
Father  and  Mother,  Jesus  and  Ann,  have  not  taken  before  us, 
but  these  we  must  take  or  never  be  saved.  God  will  not  provide 
one  way  for  their  salvation  and  another  way  for  ours  ;  hence 
they  say,  follow  us.  To  follow  one  is  to  follow  the  other,  for 
they  are  one  —  their  example  and  teaching  the  same  ;  both,  after 
their  anointing,  lived  free  from  sin. 

The  reason  "  Jesus  was  anointed  above  His  fellows  "  (mind  He 
had  fellows),  was  because  He  was  the  best  of  His  class  —  "  loved 
righteousness  and  hated  iniquity  "  more  than  any  of  them.  It  was 
written  of  Him  thus  :  After  His  temptation.  He  returned  in  the 
power  of  the  Spirit  to  Galilee,  and  thence  to  Nazareth,  where  He 
was  brought  up ;  and,  as  His  custom  was,  He  went  into  the  syna- 
gogue and  stood  up  to  read.  And  there  was  delivered  to  Him  the 
book  of  Esaias,  and  when  He  had  opened  it  He  found  the  place 
where  it  was  written  : 

"  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the 
poor,  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  cap- 
tives, to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bound,  to  preach  the  accept- 
able year  of  the  Lord." 

He  then  closed  the  Book,  gave  it  to  the  minister  and  sat 
down.  All  eyes  were  fastened  on  Him.  An  electric  flash  from  a 
cloudless  sky  at  noonday  would  not  have  shocked  them  more  than 
the  next  words  He  uttered  from  his  scat :  "  This  day  is  this  Scrip- 
ture fulfilled  in  your  ears." 

Thus  was  announced  to  an  astonished  world  for  the  first  time 
that  the  Christ  they  had  so  long  expected  was  then  sitting  in  their 
midst !  At  first  they  were  pleased  with  the  gracious  words  that 
proceeded  out  of  His  mouth  ;  but  after  a  few  home  thrusts,  and 
the  affirmation  that  Jle  was  the  man  to  whom  the  prophetic  word 
applied,  they  became  enraged,  and  wanted  to  kill  Him.   A  young 


HO  Christ's  Second  Appeaeing. 

man  whom  they  had  known,  to  presume  so  much  !  He  was  now 
Jesus,  the  Christ,  the  commissioned  of  God,  according  to  His  own 
declaration.  There  was  no  miraculous  dove  talking  or  speaking 
through  Him,  as  the  Gnostics  have  reported.  He  was  now  at  home 
among  His  brothers  and  sisters  and  young  acquaintances,  and  well 
He  knew  they  would  suppose  He  had  faults  as  well  as  they  ;  so  He 
took  the  start  of  them  by  saying  :  "  You  will  siay  unto  me  this 
proverb,  '  Physician,  heal  thyself.'  "  But  there  was  one  thing  that, 
perhaps,  His  relatives  did  not  know,  and  that  was,  the  physician 
had  healed  himself  in  the  order  of  God  under  John.  Thus,  in 
short,  we  see  the  mode  of  His  first  appearing ;  the  second  must  be 
like  unto  it. 

Thus  it  was  with  Ann  Lee,  who  went  through  the  same  ordeal, 
setting  the  example  for  womankind,  that  Jesus  did  for  men,  since 
which  time  the  church  has  rested  on  these  two  pillars,  no  more  to 
be  overthrown.  Thus,  the  "  mystery  of  God,  in  the  blazing  sun- 
light of  this  day,  is  finished.''  Amen ;  it  is  finished.  These  truths 
may  set  hardly  with  some  who  have  considered  Jesus  to  be  super- 
human ;  but  such  must  remember  that  He  was  one  of  the  breth- 
ren, after  His  baptism,  and  not  at  all  ashamed  to  call  them  so. 

But  we  are  told  that,  although  tempted  in  all  points  as  we  are, 
"He  was  without  sin;  and  that  He  always  did  the  things  that  pleased 
the  Father."  The  same  may  be  said  of  Ann,  who  manifested  the 
Mother  in  Deity.  She  was  without  sin,  and  always  did  the  things 
that  pleased  her  Mother  and  Lord  after  she  was  commissioned. 
So  it  was  with  Christ ;  for  Jesus  became  the  Christ  by  virtue  of 
His  appointment.  He  was  not  Christ  before  that  time,  but  simply, 
as  the  Apostle  John  said,  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  son  of  Joseph." 

But  the  anointed  man  was  tempted  in  all  points  as  we  are,  for, 
saith  the  apostle,  "  we  have  not  an  high  priest  who  is  not  touched 
with  our  infirmities."  Now,  it  is  a  fact  worthy  of  note,  that  all 
temptations  must  come  through  some  department  of  our  nature. 
It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  be  tempted  by  an  external  pre- 
sentment unless  he  has  something  within  him  which  desires  it. 
The  serpent  that  tempted  Eve  only  showed  something  she  desired ; 
and  Adam  could  not  have  been  overcome  but  for  the  fact  that 
he  had  as  strong  a  desire  for  the  fruit  as  Eve  had ;  and  his 
throwing  the  blame  on  her  was  simply  cowardly  and  con- 
temptible. 

Now,  if  we  know  how  we  are  tempted  and  what  tempts  us 
most,  we  know  how  Jesus  was  tempted  and  what  tempted  Him 


Christ   Sufferlngs.  Ill 

most ;  but  that  He  successfully  resisted  all  temptations  after  He 
became  the  Christ  none  will  dispute.  This,  and  this  alone,  is  the 
apostle's  declaration,  and  is  true.  This  adds  an  hundred  fold 
more  lustre  to  His  brow  than  to  admit  the  Gnostic  doctrine,  that 
a  Christ  came  from  some  unknown  world,  entered  into  Him  and 
rendered  Him  impeccable. 

Little  is  known  of  Jesus'  history  previous  to  His  baptism  by 
John ;  but  if  we  examine  the  word  of  the  apostle  closely  we  shall 
find  that  they  thought  Him  not  impeccable  previous  thereto  :  "In 
that  He  died,  He  died  unto  sin  once,"  as  we  also  must  die.  We 
cannot  die  to  a  thino-  to  which  we  have  never  been  alive.  "  He 
was  as  we  are  in  this  world."  Do  we  not  know  liow  we  are  ? 
"  He  learned  obedience  by  things  He  suffered,"  as  we  must.  Also 
Peter  iv,  1,2:"  For  as  much  as  Christ  suffered  for  us  in  the  flesh 
(not  in  ovir  stead),  arm  yourselves  likewise  with  the  same  mind, 
for  he  that  hath  suffered  in  the  flesh  hath  ceased  from  sin  [as 
Jesus  did],  that  he  no  longer  should  live  the  rest  of  his  time  [as 
he  had  done  a  part  of  his  time]  to  the  lust  of  men,  but  to  the  will 
of  God." 

What  sublime  pathos  in  the  soul-melting  out-pouring  of  the 
spirit  through  the  prophet  Isaiah,  in  which  it  is  shown  that  Jesus 
did  the  work  for  himself.  Who  is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom, 
with  dyed  garments  from  Bozrah  ?  —  this  that  is  glorious  in  his 
apparel,  traveling  in  the  greatness  of  his  strength  ?  Wherefore 
art  thou  red  in  thine  apparel  ?  *  *  (His  answer  is  enough  to 
draw  tears  from  a  stone.)  "  I  have  trodden  the  winepress  alone, 
and  of  the  people  there  was  none  with  me :  And  I  looked  and 
there  was  none  to  help,  therefore  mine  own  arm  brought  salvation 
unto  me."  —  Isa.  Ixiii,  1,  2,  3,  5. 

It  would  seem  that  enough  had  been  said  showing  the  similarity 
between  the  first  and  second  appearing;  but  people  do  not  readily 
believe  if  one  stone  is  left  unturned.  It  could  not  be  said  to  be 
a  second  appearance  if  there  was  any  essential  contrast,  either  in 
the  mode,  effect,  operation,  or  ultimate.  We  have  shown  that  it 
was  unnecessary  for  the  same  flesh  and  bones  to  reappear,  to  con- 
stitute a  second  appearance  —  but  that  Christ  was  manifested,  and 
reappeared,  in  Ann's  testimony,  her  searching  power,  her  self-de- 
nial, tribulation,  etc. ;  in  fact  all  the  evidences  reappeared  in  her 
that  appeared  in  Jesus. 

He  did  not  come  with  the  nature  of  angels,  but  the  seed  of 
Abraham.     She  appeared  likewise,  not  with  the  nature  of  angels. 


112  Christ's  Second  Appearing. 

but  with  our  nature ;  hence  Jesus  and  Ann  are  alike  in  their  na- 
tures. As  there  was  a  forerunner  in  the  first  appearing  to  pre- 
pare the  way  for  Jesus,  so  there  was  in  the  second  appearing  to 
prepare  the  w^ay  for  Ann. 

Previous  to  the  second  appearance,  anti-Clirist  began  to  be 
weakened  by  that  memorable  division  called  the  "  Keformation," 
by  which  a  way  was  opened  for  man  to  contend  for  his  long  lost 
liberty.  About  this  time,  many  religious  revivals  broke  out  in 
various  parts  of  Europe,  particularly  in  France  and  Germany. 
The  remarkable  revival  which  occui-red  about  the  year  1689,  in 
the  province  of  Dauphiny  and  Yivarais,  in  France,  excited  great 
attention.  The  subjects  thereof  testified  that  the  end  of  things 
drew  nigh ;  they  preached  repentance,  stating  that  the  kingdom 
of  God  was  at  hand  —  that  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb  would  soon 
take  place. 

These  witnesses  increased  until  about  the  year  1706,  when  a 
few  of  them  went  over  to  England,  where  many  were  united  to 
them,  and  both  their  numbers  and  powers  of  ministration,  like 
the  sea,  ebbed  and  flowed  for  forty  years,  when  a  small  number 
of  the  most  faithful  were  led  by  the  spirit  to  unite  themselves 
into  a  small  society,  near  Manchester,  under  the  ministry  of  James 
and  Jane  Wardley.  These  were  the  John  Baptists  of  the  second 
appearing  of  Christ,  to  whom  the  people  came  and  were  baptized 
into  the  spirit  of  repentance,  confessing  their  sins ;  and  Ann  Lee 
was  among  the  rest,  and  she  came  for  the  same  purpose  the  rest 
did  ;  and  as  Jesus  confessed  to  the  forerunner  in  His  day,  so  like- 
wise Ann  Lee  confessed  to  the  forerunner  of  the  Second  Advent, 
and  came  up  through  that  order,  as  Jesus  did  through  that  of 
John.  So  that  the  forerunners  declared  her  to  be,  first  a  woman 
"  coming  aftei'  them,  but  was  preferred  hefore  them,  for  she  was 
before  them." 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  the  second  was  the  reappearing  of  the  first ; 
hence,  as  promised,  Christ  has  appeared  "  the  second  time  without 
sin  unto  salvation "  to  all  who  will  accept,  believe  and  obey. 
The  little  handful  continued  to  increase  in  light  and  power  until 
the  year  1770,  when  by  a  special  manifestation  of  divine  light  the 
present  testimony  of  salvation  and  eternal  life  was  fully  revealed 
to  Ann  Lee,  and  by  her  made  known  to  the  society  ;  and  thus  she 
rose  above  them  and  became  the  anointed  and  acknowledged 
leader  of  this  faithful  band.  From  this  time  forth  Ann  knew 
herself  to  be  the  Bride,  the  Lamb's  wife,  being  baptized  with  the 


Co-Operation.  113 

same  spirit,  and,  by  implicit  obedience  to  the  light  received  from 
God,  she  became  conjoined  to  the  Bridegroom,  and  was  a  co- 
worker with  Him  in  the  regeneration  and  redemption  of  the  race 
—  He  the  Father  and  She  the  Mother  in  spiritual  Israel. 

And  now  let  ns  ask :  Are  these  too  humble,  lowlj  and  mean  to 
be  honored  with  the  leadership  of  God's  people  i  or  shall  we, 
Gnostic-like,  look  high  up  among  the  stars  for  a  greater  ?  It  were 
folly  to  do  so.  We  trust  it  is  now  seen  that  all  the  types  and 
symbols  under  the  shadowy  dispensations  of  the  law  and  the 
prophets  are  completely  fulfilled  in  the  "  two  anointed  Ones  " 
who  stand  as  the  first  foundation  pillars  in  the  new  creation  — 
Jesus  Christ  and  Ann  Lee,  whose  ultimates  are  the  same  —  the 
first  appearing  ultimated  in  a  living  body  or  Church,  which  had 
all  things  in  common ;  the  second  appearing  ultimated  in  the 
same.  Hence  we  see  in  every  ixirticular^  from  the  first  shadow- 
ing forth  —  from  the  first  promise  of  God  that  a  Redeemer  should 
appear,  through  all  prophecy  up  to  the  substance,  the  first  and 
second  —  that  the  male  and  female  are  perfectly  equal  in  t}^e 
and  symbol,  in  j)rophecy  aiid  person,  in  call,  in  character,  in 
operation,  in  substance,  in  effect,  in  culmination  and  in  ultimate. 
Equality !  is  ineffaceably  stamped  upon  them,  never  more  to  be 
blotted  out. 

The  same  spirit  now  calls  that  called  then;  the  same  doctrine 
is  taught  now  that  was  taught  then  ;  the  same  exhortation  is  made ; 
the  invitation  is  given  now  to  all  kindreds,  nations  and  tongues 
that  was  given  then  :  "  Look  unto  me  and  be  saved,  all  ye  ends 
of  the  earth." 

The  last  silver  trumpet  is  now  sounding  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth,  and  may  its  shrill  and  piercing  notes  reach  every  moun- 
tain-top, penetrate  every  forest,  echo  in  every  land  and  extend 
over  every  wide  sea,  till  the  whole  earth  shall  know  that  now  is 
come  salvation  and  strength  and  the  kingdom  of  our  God  and  the 
power  of  His  Christ. 
16 


114 


THE  DEVIL  NOT  SELF-EXISTENT. 


Text — Have  I  not  cliosen  you  twelve,  and  one  of  you  is  a  Devil  ? — [John  vi,  70. 

I  propose  to-day  to  fulfill  the  promise  whicli  I  made  in  a  pre- 
vious discourse,  by  calling  your  attention  to  the  consideration  of 
the  great  being  named  in  the  text.  He  has  been  made  an  inqjor- 
tant  factor  in  the  Avorld's  history  from  creation  to  the  present 
day.  So  much  importance  has  been  and  is  (shall  I  say  ignorantly  ?) 
attached  to  him  by  pulpit  orators  and  others,  that  he  is  now  con- 
sidered by  many  to  be  co-equal  in  existence  with  God,  and  sufficient 
in  power  to  frustrate  the  designs  and  thwart  the  plans  of  the 
Ahnighty.  That  while  God's  kingdom  is  a  kingdom  of  light, 
his  is  a  kingdom  of  darkness,  from  which  he  emerged  in  our 
world's  infancy,  and,  in  the  absence  of  Deity,  made  shipwreck  of 
his  noblest  work,  causing  the  fall  of  man  and  taking  him  captive ; 
and  the  destruction  was  so  great  that  God  has  not  been  able  in 
6,000  years  to  fully  repair  the  breach  then  made ;  and  His  own 
unappeasable  wrath  became  so  enkindled  against  man  that  He  has 
given  nine-tenths  of  his  posterity  to  his  Satanic  Majesty,  to  be 
by  him  roasted  in  Plutonian  fires  through  all  eternity !  That, 
finally,  He  saw  no  plan  to  defeat  the  Devil  and  keep  him  from 
taking  the  whole,  but  to  humble  Himself  and  come  down  to  earth 
through  a  woman,  who  in  turn  had  to  appear  before  a  sinning 
priest,  make  confession  and  ofifer  a  sin  offering  for  the  uncleanness 
of  that  which  God  Himself  had  imposed  on  her ;  and  for  which 
sinful  act  she  has  not  only  been  canonized,  but  made  the  fourth 
person  in  the  Godhead  by  the  greatest  of  all  the  lower-floor 
churches.  These  glaring  inconsistencies  alone  ought  to  be  suffi- 
cient to  satisfy  every  thoughtful  and  rational  Bible  student  that 
the  whole  miraculous  statement  was  a  forged  interpolation.  But 
this  humiliation  on  the  part  of  Deity  was  to  show  the  devil  that, 
in  the  form  of  man,  He  could  withstand  his  wiles  and  not  be  over- 
come by  him,  and  for  this  cause  the  spirit  led  him  into  the  wilder- 
ness to  receive  his  temptations.  Here  He  was  made  not  only  to 
fast  forty  days  and  forty  nights,  but  was 


Internal  Temptations.  H5 

soeely  tempted  by  the  devil, 

who  took  Him  from  the  wilderness  upon  a  high  mountain,  where 
He  could  view  the  surroundings,  and  in  a  twinkling  showed  and 
offered  Him  "all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the  glory  of 
them,"  if  He  would  forsake  the  Lord  and  worship  him.  Not  satis- 
fied with  this  refusal  of  the  God-man,  the  devil  took  Him  back  to 
Jerusalem  and  set  Him  on  a  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  and,  though 
sorely  tempted.  He  stood  His  ground.  Still,  one  would  think  He 
should  not  have  been  very  greatly  tempted  by  such  offers  when 
He  had  the  whole  universe  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand.  IS^ow, 
temptation  is  an  impossibility  to  any  one  who  has  nothing  in  him 
which  covets  or  desires  the  thing  offered.  And  as  the  God-man 
was  tempted,  it  follows  that  He  had  within  Him  a  desire  for  the 
things  offered  Him  by  the  devil,  and  which  desires  had  to  be 
resisted  and  overcome  ;  thus  it  is  evident  that  His  desire  for  these 
things  was  the  devil  which  had  been  worryiug  Him,  and  not  some 
great  external  bugaboo.  The  error  of  the  pulpit  is  in  looking  at 
this  scene  as  a  literal  and  external  transaction,  as  impossible  as  it 
would  have  been.  They  contend  that  the  fasting  in  the  wilder- 
ness, His  being  taken  by  the  devil  on  to  an  exceeding  high 
mountain,  and  afterward  being  taken  back  by  him  to  Jerusalem 
and  set  on  a  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  are  iwima  facie-  evidence  of 
the  self-existence  of  the  devil.  But  with  little  careful  thought 
the  student  will  discover  its  literal  impossibility.  First — ^It  was' a 
spiritual  fast.  While  under  the  influence  of  these  internal  temp- 
tations in  the  wilderness  of  doubts  in  regard  to  the  eflicacy  and 
success  of  the  work  He  was  called  to.  He  could  receive  no  spiritual 
food ;  but  after  He  had  resisted  all  those  temptations  and  banished 
all  vain  desires,  angels  then  could  find  access,  and  "  came  and 
ministered  to  Him"  the  bread  and  waters  of  life.  We  know  that 
He  was  not  bodily  set  upon  a  church  steeple,  nor  bodily  carried 
on  to  that  high  mountain.  These  were  only  the  self-exalted 
notions  presented  in  His  mind,  which  He  found  it  His  duty  to 
banish  before  He  could  receive  the  blessing  of  angels.  Thus  it 
will  be  seen  we  have  not  found  the  external  monster  yet,  either 
in  or  out  of  the  Bible,  but  in  man  only.  Hath  not  God  chosen 
hundreds,  and  are  not  some  of  them  devils  ?  Every  hypocrite, 
every  thief,  every  liar,  every  backbiter,  every  fomenter  of  discord, 
every  debaucher,  and  all  who  obey  the  lower  instead  of  the  higher 
impulses,  may  be  classed  with  Judas  as  devils.     So,  then,  if  any 


116  The  Devil  not   Self-Existent. 

have  a  curiosity  to  see  the  devil,  1  would  advise  them  to  look 
within,  and  if  he  is  not  there,  they  need  not  fear  him. 

But  I  must  come  more  directly  to  the  subject  and  consider  the 
possibility  of  two  independent,  self -existent  beings,  and  notice 
some  of  the  arguments  in  its  favor.  It  is  asserted  that  all  exist- 
ences have  their  opposites,  as  light  and  darkness,  heat  and  cold, 
life  and  death,  good  and  evil,  God  and  devil,  and  that  we  have 
the  same  evidence  for  the  existence  of  one  that  we  have  for  the 
other.  The  error  here  consists  in  taking  conditions  and  qualities 
for  entities.  Darkness  is  not  an  entity,  and  heat  and  cold,  hfe 
and  death,  are  conditions  of  matter;  good  and  evil  are  qualities 
only. 

God  is  infinite  spirit ;  but  infinite  devil  is  a  chimera,  as  I  will 
hereafter  show.  Besides,  we  have  not,  as  asserted,  the  same  evi- 
dence for  the  existence  of  a  devil,  external  to  man,  that  we  have 
for  the  existence  of  God.  For  the  latter  we  have  the  harmonious 
universe.  For  the  former,  or  devil,  we  have  no  evidence  of  his 
existence  only  in  the  actions  and  deeds  of  man,  which  go  far  to 
prove  that  he  has  no  existence  exterior  to  finite  creatures.  "  Have 
I  not  chosen  you  twelve,  and  one  of  you  is  a  devil  ? "  But  it  is 
affirmed  that  the  "  free  agency  of  man  pre-supj)oses  the  existence 
of  two  opposite  powers,  controlled  and  directed  by  two  primary 
antagonistic  intelligences  or  beings."  But  this  conclusion  does 
not  follow,  but  the  reverse.  This  is  a  sophism  that  logicians  call 
non  causa  ])ro  causa  —  the  assignation  of  a  false  cause.  Two 
equal  antagonistic  powers  cannot  cause  free  agency  or  any  other 
active  condition  to  exist.  There  is  no  living  thing  whose  exist- 
ence can  possibly  pre-suppose  two  antagonisms.  On  the  contrary, 
such  existences  pre-suppose  something  harmonious.  A  thing  made 
and  destroyed  does  not  pre-suppose  two  antagonisms,  but  simply 
the  power  to  make  and  destroy.  But  'tis  argued  that  God  made 
his  free  agent,  man,  "very  good,"  which  supposes  a  good  maker  ; 
but  now  man  is  made  very  bad,  and  this  supposes  a  bad  makei  oi 
devil,  since  God  could  not  be  the  maker  nor  author  of  any  thing 
bad.  Hence,  if  the  good  man  is  proof  of  a  good  maker  —  God  — 
the  bad  man  is  proof  of  a  bad  maker — -devil  —  thus  the  existence 
of  the  great  antagonist  of  God  is  logically  proved.  Kot  so  fast. 
Logic  wrongly  applied  is  worse  than  no  logic  at  all. 

In  this  there  is  no  agreement  between  premise  and  conclusion. 
That  God's  free  agent  had  the  power  to  misuse  the  good  faculties 
given  by  his  Maker,  and  thus  become  a  bad  man,  affords  no  evi- 


Fkee  Agency.  117 

dence  that  another  being  external  to  himself  had  any  hand  in  it. 
So  we  still  have  no  necessity  for  God's  great  adversary. 

But  it  is  further  asked :  "  If  God  gave  man  the  inclination,  or 
that  which  caused  the  inclination,  to  do  wrong,  knowing  he  would 
do  so,  does  this  not  make  God  Himself  responsible?"  By  no 
means.  God  could  not  do  an  impossible  thing.  It  was  necessary 
to  progression  that  man  should  be  free,  which  could  not  be  with- 
out investing  him  with  power  either  to  do  or  not  to  do  at  pleasure. 
If  he  had  not  this  power  he  w^ould  be  relieved  of  the  responsi- 
bility ;  but,  having  it,  makes  him  a  creature  of  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments. He  is  thus  accountable  for  all  the  words  and  deeds  of 
life,  and  may  either  become  a  devil  or  saint,  as  he  may  elect. 
"  For  the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  *  *  Then  He  shall  reward 
every  man  according  to  his  works." —  Matt,  xvi,  27.  But  the 
querist  continues  :  What  caused  the  man  to  choose  to  follow  the 
bad  inclinations,  if  the  devil  did  not  come  to  tempt  hun  ?  In 
reply  I  would  ask :  What  caused  him  to  listen  to  the  devil  ? 
When  this  is  aijswered,  the  other  will  be  also.  It  is  evident  that, 
if  man  had  not  the  inclination  to  deviate  from  a  straight  line,  or 
as  he  was  acted  on  by  his  Creator,  he  would  simply  be  a  machine 
without  accountability.  If  it  still  be  supposed  that  the  good  man 
Avould  not  have  erred  but  for  the  interposition  of  a  foreign  being 
called  de\al,  this  would  still  deny  his  free  agency.  Ko  reason  nor 
logic  can  show  that  either  the  machine  or  the  man  could  become 
a  free  agent  by  being  placed  between  two  opposite  forces,  whether 
these  forces  Avere  equal  or  unequal.  If  they  were  equal,  the  man 
or  machine  would  be  made  to  stand  still  and  be  held  in  equilibrio. 
If  the  forces  were  unequal,  he  would  be  moved  and  guided  by 
the  strongest  power,  and,  as  the  majority  of  mankind  are  in  "  evil 
continually,"  it  would  follow  that  there  is  a  power  greater  than 
God.  Then  why  strive  to  obey  the  weaker  power?  To  this 
would  the  acceptance  of  a  self-existent  devil  lead.  But  it  is 
added :  What  meant  Christ  in  saying  to  the  Jews,  "  Ye  are  of 
your  father  the  Devil "  (John  viii,  44),  if  he  did  not  mean,  My 
Father  is  God  ;  your  father  is  the  devil  ?  Are  not  Christ's  plain 
declarations  to  be  relied  on  ?  Most  certainly.  But  Christ  added  : 
"  Your  father's  lusts  ye  will  do."  His  meaning  would  have  been 
more  clear  if  He  had  said  :  "  My  Father  is  the  Spirit,  your  father 
is  the  flesh,  and  his  lusts  ye  will  do."  "  Ladies  and  gentlemen," 
as  you  are  pleased  to  style  yourselves.  You  are  free  agents. 
Flesh  or  spirit  ?     Both  cannot  occupy  the  same  chamber.     Lower 


118  The  Devil  not  Self-Existent. 

floor  or  upper  floor  ^  Carnal  life  or  spirit  life?  God-spirit 
father,  or  flesh-devil  father?  We  will  all  show  our  choice  by  the 
lives  we  lead.  That  devils  do  exist  none  will  dispute.  "  Have  I 
not  chosen  twelve,  and  one  of  voii  is  a  devil?"  But  his  unorigi- 
nality  and  self-existence  are  denied.  The  moment  investigation 
begins,  we  see  it  involves  the  following 

PARADOXICAL  SOLECISMS  : 

Two  equal  infinities,  creator  and  destroyer.  Two  supremes, 
two  first  causes,  two  necessary  self-sufticient  existences,  two  origi- 
nals, two  almighties,  all  of  which  are  absurd  and  impossible.  But 
were  these  true,  the  universe  could  not  have  been  created  at  all, 
for  two  equal  forces,  whether  of  mind  or  matter,  would  have 
brought  every  thing  to  a  stand-still.  "While  it  would  have  been 
the  mind  of  one  to  create,  it  would  of  necessity  have  been  the 
mind  of  the  opposite  to  destroy,  and,  being  equals,  no  world 
could  have  been  made ;  but  the  universe  denies  the  propo- 
sition. It  is  sufficient  to  say  here,  that  which  has  no  beginning 
can  have  no  ending,  and  if  the  devil  is  a  self-existent  being  he 
must  continue  forever.  An  unoriginated  being  is  a  necessary 
existence,  and  must  be  just  what  it  is  —  must  exist  because  of  the 
necessity  of  such  existence;  consequently  must  be  good.  His 
goodness  is  as  necessary  as  his  existence.  He  could  not  be  evil 
because  evil  is  unnecessary,  not  needed  ;  consequently  not  unorigi- 
nated. Pursuing  the  thought,  we  discover  that  a  necessary  being 
is  necessarily  from  everlasting,  without  beginning,  without  end- 
ing, self-existent,  self-sufiicient,  almighty.  Such  being  must  of 
necessity  be  wise,  his  wisdom  be  infinite,  as  there  is  the  same 
reason  for  the  infinity  of  his  wisdom  as  that  of  his  being,  and, 
being  infinitely  wise,  he  must  perceive  that  goodness  is  infinitely 
better  than  evil,  love  than  malice.  In  a  word,  being  independent 
in  his  existence,  and  consequently  in  his  action,  he  must  of  infinite 
necessity  choose  to  be  good.  Plence  we  assert,  with  mathematical 
and  logical  certainty,  that  a  necessary  being  is  necessarily  good, 
toise  and  perfect.  All  of  which  is  proved  from  the  mode  of  his 
existence.  How  then  is  it  possible  for  a  sane  mind,  after  tracing 
matters  thus  far,  to  admit  that  another  being,  whose  mode  of  exist- 
ence is  precisely  the  same,  can,  notwithstanding,  possess  a  nature 
diametrically  opposite  ?  Whoever  asserts  that  an  eternal,  self- 
existent  being  can  be  absolutely  malicious  has  no  argument  to 
prove  that  another  being  of  precisely  the  same  mode  of  existence 


The  Devil's  Exit.  119 

is  absolutely  good.  So  thus  logically  stands  the  case  :  If  a  self- 
existent  being  be  necessarily  good,  as  proved,  there  can  be  no  self- 
existent  evil  being.     Thus  his  majesty 

VANISHES  INTO  THIN  AIR  ; 

for,  unless  the  axiom  that  the  same  cause  must  always  produce 
the  same  effect  be  given  up  as  false  and  absurd,  we  are  compelled 
to  admit  that  tliose  primary  beings  whose  mode  of  existence  is  the 
same  must  be  similar  in  their  character  and  nature.  Thus  we  see 
that,  by  the  admission  of  so  great  an  absurdity  as  the  existence 
of  two  or  more  primary  beings,  we  gain  nothing  by  it.  We  have 
not  found  an  eternal  source  of  evil  at  last.  For  two  eternal  inde- 
pendent beings  cannot  be  admitted.  When  the  mind  has  ration- 
ally traced  out  as  shown,  the  existence  and  attributes  of  one  nec- 
essary being,  it  cannot  logically  suppose  another ;  because  one 
being  of  infinite  power  and  wisdom  is  fully  sufficient  to  account 
for  creation.  So  in  strictness  of  language  and  logic,  there  can  be 
but  one  eternal,  self-existent,  infinite  and  necessary  being.  There 
can  be  but  one  infinite  space.  If  we  supposed  two,  we  set  bounds 
to  each,  and  thus  destroy  the  infinity  of  both.  Just  so  is  it  wnth 
infinite  beings.  By  admitting  two  we  destroy  the  infinity  and  un- 
deify  both.  But  it  may  still  be  affirmed  that  after  having 
found  an  efficient  cause  for  the  existence  of  all  created  good, 
we  still  want  an  efficient  cause  for  evil,  and  argue  that, 
since  one  necessary  being  is  necessarily  good  and  perfect,  to 
suppose  tliat  evil  originated  from  Him  would  be  to  deny  his  nec- 
essary goodness.  However  distressing  the  necessity  may  be  to 
discover  the  origin  of  evil,  we  cannot  remove  the  difficulty 
by  supposing  an  eternal  self -existent  evil  being,  for  in  so  doing  we 
create  a  greater  absurdity  than  we  remove.  The  good  Apostle 
James  points  out  its  origin  in  the  following  emphatic  language  : 
"  From  whence  come  wars  and  fightings  among  you  ?  Come  they 
not  hence  even  of  your  lusts  that  war  in  your  members  "  (where 
the  flesh-devil  reigns) — James  iv,  1.  He  further  says  :  "  Kesist 
this  devil  and  he  will  flee  from  you."  But  whenever  we  assert 
that  a  necessary  being  is  not  necessarily  good  and  perfect  we  do 
away  with  the  necessity  of  an  evil  being,  because  such  being  may 
be  the  author  of  both  good  and  evil  ;  so  tlien  the  case  would 
logically  stand  thus  :  If  a  self-existent  being  be  necessarily  good, 
there  can  be  no  self-existent  evil  being.  But  if  a  self-existent 
being  be  not  necessarily  good,  it  would  follow  that  God  is  not  nee- 


120  The  Devil  ^tot   Self-Existent. 

essarily  and  unchangeably  good,  and  may,  therefore,  be  the 
anthor  of  evil  ;  consequently,  we  would  have  no  use  for  a  self- 
existent  devil.  According  to  the  first  proposition,  the  existence 
of  such  a  being  is  impossible.  According  to  the  second  he  is 
wholly  unnecessary.  Thus  his  non-existence  is  proved  to  a  de- 
monstration. 

SPINOZA. 

I  might  stop  here,  but  will  tax  your  patience  a  little  further  by 
reading  a  quotation  from  the  Hebrew  philosopher  Benedict  de 
Spinoza,  as  follows :  "  If  the  devil  be  an  entity  contrary  in  all 
respects  to  God,  having  nothing  of  God  in  his  nature,  then  he 
can  have  nothing  in  common  with  God.  Is  he  assumed  to  be  a 
thinking  entity,  as  some  will  have  it,  who  never  wills  and  never 
does  any  good,  and  who  sets  himself  in  opposition  to  God  on  all 
occasions,  he  must  assuredly  be  a  very  wretched  being,  and,  could 
prayers  do  any  thing  for  him,  his  amendment  were  much  to  be 
implored.  But  let  us  ask,  whether  so  miserable  an  object  could 
exist  even  for  an  instant,  and,  the  question  put,  we  see  at  once 
that  it  could  not,  for  from  the  perfection  of  a  thing  proceeds  its 
power  of  continuance.  The  more  of  the  essential  and  divine  a 
thing  possesses,  the  more  enduring  it  is.  But  how  could  the  devil, 
having  no  trace  of  perfection  in  him,  exist  at  all  ?  Add  to  this 
that  the  stability  or  duration  of  a  thinking  thing  depends  entirely 
on  its  love  of  and  union  with  God,  and  that  the  opposite  of  this 
state  in  every  particular  being  presumed  in  the  devil,  it  is 
oljviously  impossible  that  there  can  be  any  such  being.  And  then 
there  is,  indeed,  no  necessity  to  presume  the  existence  of  a  devil, 
for  the  causes  of  hate,  envy,  anger  and  all  such  passions  are 
readily  enough  discovered,  and  there  is  no  occasion  for  resort  to 
fiction  to  accoimt  for  the  evils  they  engender," 

This  I  consider  true.  It  were  indeed  absurd  to  refer  to  a  foreign 
power  that  which  man  is  able  to  perform  of  himself,  and  which 
it  is  well  known  he  has  performed  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  The 
passional  nature  of  man  is  sufiicient  to  account  for  all  the  evils  of 
the  Avorld  —  past,  present  and  to  come.  But  men  will  reluctantly 
yield  opinions  imbibed,  as  it  were,  from  their  mother's  bosom, 
and,  with  all  that  has  been  or  can  be  said,  will  feel  somewhat  like 
the  darky  who  said  :  "  Sah,  you  need  not  tell  dis  niggah  dar  is 
no  debbil.  Kase,  if  dah  was  no  debbil,  how  does  da  make  de 
picters   so    zackly  like    him?     Wid   dem   big    claws    and    dat 


The  Origin   of  Evil.  121 

great  chain  around  his  neck  and  de  angel  a  holden  him  in 
de  pit  till  God  gets  ready  to  let  him  loose.  When  dat 
time  comes,  see  if  you  will  den  say  dar  is  no  debbil."  I  am 
cited  to  other  texts  of  scripture  than  those  quoted,  which,  now  to 
notice,  would  be  too  great  a  strain  on  your  already  overtaxed 
patience.  I  will,  therefore,  close  with  the  words  of  our  Saviour, 
which  plainly  show  where  we  may  look  for  the  devil,  and  the 
origin  of  evil.  He  says  (Matt,  xv,  19) :  "  For  out  of  the  heart 
of  man  proceed  evil  thoughts,  murders,  adulteries,  fornications, 
thefts,"  etc.  Not  from  some  foreign  source,  but  from  the  heart 
of  man.  Then  let  us  all  "  turn  the  battle  to  the  gate,"  "  purify 
the  heart,"  drive  out  our  own  little  devils,  and  then  we  shall  have 
no  cause  to  fear  the  big  one. 
16 


122 


BIBLE  METAPHOR. 


When  any  person  appears  before  an  audience  of  intelligent 
people  to  address  them,  he  should  be  induced  to  do  so  from  one 
of  two  motives,  viz. :  either  to  exhort  them  to  greater  holiness  of 
life,  or  to  enlighten  their  understandings.  I  am  vain  enongh  to 
•  be  moved  by  the  latter  on  this  occasion.  That  which  men  have 
most  overlooked  in  regard  to  the  Bible  is  its  metaphor  —  its  beau- 
tiful tropes,  figures  of  speech  and  symbol.  Its  richness  in  these 
excels  any  other  book.  A  want  of  comprehending  them  has  made 
many  things  appear  to  be  miracles  when  they  were  not,  and  has 
caused  many  to  throw  the  book  aside  as  useless  rubbish.  The 
orthodox  are  at  one  extreme,  that  of  worshipful  veneration,  and 
the  generative  spiritualists  and  infidels  at  the  other,  that  of  inso- 
lent contempt.  Both  conditions  are  caused  by  either  the  want 
of  comprehension,  or  of  close,  candid  and  unbiased  inspection.  I 
am  not  vain  enough  to  suppose  that  I  or  any  other  person  can 
reconcile  all  that  is  contained  in  the  good  book,  either  meta- 
phorically or  otherwise,  with  the  scientific  knowledge  of  to-day. 
But,  in  my  judgment,  it  has  fewer  faults  than  the  infidel  supposes, 
and  more  than  the  orthodox  are  willing  to  admit.  Much  that  is 
deemed  faulty  by  the  former  is  true  when  properly  understood, 
but  with  a  very  different  meaning  than  that  applied  by  the  latter. 
A  few  of  them,  and  very  few  out  of  the  many  that  can  be  made 
plain  to  the  common  mind,  I  now  propose  to  notice.  I  will 
begin  with  the  statement  of  the  creation  of  man,  6,000  years 
ago,  which  is  so  lustily  berated  and  disputed  by  scientific  evolu- 
tionists and  generative  spiritualists,  and  see  if  the  Bible  be  not 
sustained.  That  the  species  ho7no,  or  man,  has  existed  on  this 
planet  at  least  100,000  years  prior  to  the  event  here  recorded  the 
honest  explorers  of  this  field  have  fully  proved.  But  this  does 
not  invalidate  the  Bible  story  in  the  least  degree,  because  it  speaks 
of  a  different  creation.  The  term  "  create  "  has  two  significations  — 
one  to  make  anew,  the  other  to  change.  To  change  is  to  create  a 
new  condition ;  hence,  the  new  condition  is   a  creation.     The 


A   New  Condition,  12,3 

story  reads  thus  :  "  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image.''  —  Gen.  i,  26. 
So  it  seems  that,  previous  to  this,  man  had  not  been  in  God's 
image,  and,  in  order  to  make  him  so,  it  was  necessary  to  make 
him  differently  from  what  he  had  been  previously.  Some  writers 
say  that,  because  they  were  created  male  and  female,  this  feature 
was  God's  image ;  but  this  would  have  wrought  no  change,  for 
primal  man  was  thus  from  the  beginning.  Besides,  this  wdiole 
planet,  mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal,  was  created  male  and 
female,  previous  to  the  existence  of  man.  Were  this  God's  im- 
age, then  the  beasts  of  the  field  were  in  God's  image  before  man 
was  created  (!)  Yerse  Y,  of  the  2d  chapter,  says  :  "  And  the  Lord 
formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his 
nostrils  the  breath  of  life,  and  man  became  a  living  soul."  This 
shows  that  previous  to  this  he  was  a  dead  soul.  But  God  made 
him  of  the  dust  of  the  ground.  What  dust  ?  Answer :  The  dust 
of  promiscuity  and  animalism.  There  was  no  other  dust  to  make 
him  of.  God  being  spirit.  He  made  tlie  internal,  the  real  man 
spirit  also  —  "  breathed  into  him  the  breath  of  life  "  —  quickened, 
changed  him  from  death  unto  life  ;  hence  in  His  own  image. 
Any  other  construction  would  conflict  with  known  truths.  The 
common  orthodox  rendering  seems  to  me  to  be  as  ridiculous  as 
that  of  the  negro  who  said  :  "  De  fuss  man  God  made  was  black. 
He  took  some  good,  rich,  black  dirt  an'  mold  him  up,  den  set  him 
up  'gin  de  fence  to  dry,  and  blowed  bref  into  him ;"  whereupon 
one  of  his  hearers  ejaculated  :  "  AVho  made  de  fence  ?  "  But 
creation  did  not  stop  here.  It  was  found  that  the  newly-made 
man,  who  was  chosen  and  appointed  to  lead  in  the  advanced 
order,  had  no  counterpart.  There  was  no  woman  made  anew 
with  a  living  soul,  and  God  saw  that  it  was  not  good  for  the 
quickened  man  to  be  alone.  So  the  account  goes :  He  brought  a 
deep  sleep  on  Adam,  Avhen  a  rib  was  taken  from  his  side,  of  which 
a  woman  was  made.  I  would  remind  mj^  readers  of  the  fact  that 
the  Hebrew  word  Adam  is  a  noun  of  multitude,  as  well  as  a 
noun  proper.  It  is  like  our  w^ord  man,  which  may  mean  either  a 
single  man  or  mankind ;  so  Adam  may  mean  either  the  man 
Adam  or  Adamkind.  Hence  it  is  reasonable  to  conclude  that  it 
was  Adamkind  that  slept  from  whom  the  rib  or  binder  was  taken 
for  the  man  Adam's  counterpart.  She  was  then  the  newly  made 
woman,  quickened  as  the  newly  made  man,  who  were  intended 
for  the  higher  order  of  marriage,  which  was  now  for  the  first 
time  instituted. 


124  Bible  Metaphor. 

Thus  it  was  that  man  and  woman  were  created  more  than  6,000 
years  ago,  according  to  Bible  history,  which  is  shown  to  be  con- 
sistent, and  not  in  conflict,  with  any  known  truth.  The  whole 
story  of  man's  creation,  of  his  rectitude,  of  the  Garden,  the  ser- 
pent, etc.,  is  a  beautiful  allegory,  and  no  less  beautiful  than  true, 
and  all  the  derision  and  cant  which  has  been  cast  upon  it  is  only 
so  much  wasted  breath.  I  will  pass  the  plagues  of  Egypt,  the 
serpent-rods,  the  Red  sea,  to  Joshua.  One  of  the  greatest  stumb- 
ling-blocks to  Bible-readers  is  that  of  Joshua  commanding  the  Sun 
to  stand  still  on  Gibeon,  to  lengthen  the  daylight  from  twelve  to 
twenty-four  hours,  in  order  that  he  might  slaughter  all  the  women 
and  babies  as  well  as  men  that  dwelt  in  the  land.  But  the  first 
question  in  order  is :  Did  God  have  any  thing  to  do  in  directing 
a  war  so  merciless?  This,  I  think,  is  not  altogether  unanswera- 
ble. God,  for  man's  edification  and  instruction,  is  within  him ; 
His  word  is  there,  and  whosoever  obeys  that  word,  imj)ressed  on 
his  higher  consciousness,  obeys  God.  If  Joshua  thus  obeyed  the 
operation  of  God's  spirit  within,  it  would  follow  that  God  directed 
the  warfare,  as  when  any  of  us  obey  the  highest  light  vouchsafed 
to  us,  we  obey  God,  and  are,  for  the  present  time,  justified,  though 
ever  so  imperfect.  But  whether  Joshua  did  this  or  not,  I  am 
unable  to  say,  and  therefore  drop  this  part  of  the  subject.  It 
seems  that  the  rulers  in  Gibeon  had,  by  deceit  and  hard  lying, 
entered  into  a  league  with  Joshua,  which  so  incensed  the  five 
adjacent  kingdoms  that  they  combined  together  and  brought  up 
their  armies  to  chastise  them  for  it,  and,  although  Gibeon  was  the 
greatest,  the  five  against  him  would  certainly  have  conquered 
him,  but  they  sent  runners  to  Joshua,  whose  army  was  encamped 
at  Gilgal,  to  ask  his  aid,  thinking  that  with  the  help  of  his  army 
they  might  be  saved  from  destruction.  Joshua  consulted  the 
Lord  and  was  ordered  to  go  up  to  Gibeon.  Ari'iving  there,  he 
would  not  accept  Gentile  assistance.  The  account  runs  thus : 
'"  Then  spake  Joshua  to  the  Lord  in  the  day  when  the  Lord 
delivered  up  the  Amorites  before  the  children  of  Israel,  and  he 
said  in  the  sight  of  the  children  of  Israel :  Sun,  stand  thou  still 
upon  Gibeon  and  thou  Moon  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon,  and  the 
Sun  stood  still  in  the  midst  of  heaven  and  hasted  not  to  go  down 
about  a  whole  day."  Josh,  x,  12,13.  There  can  be  but  little 
doubt  but  what  such  transaction  occurred,  and  that  the  Sun  and 
Moon,  spoken  to  by  Joshua,  obeyed  him,  but  they  were  not  our 
day  and  night  luminaries.     If  the  Sun   was  up  in   the  stellar 


Joshua's  Command  Illustrated.  125 

regions  the  Moon  was  there  also  ;  but  it  will  be  observed  that  the 
Sun  spoken  to  was  on  Gibeon,  aucl  the  Moon  addressed  was  in 
the  valley.  Exactly  here  is  where  the  two  Gentile  armies  were, 
the  greatest  on  Gibeon,  called  the  Sun,  the  secondary  the  Moon, 
which  obeyed  the  command  of  Joshua  and  stood  still  in  the  midst 
of  heaven,  or  extreme  happiness,  the  whole  day,  to  see  Joshua 
slay  their  enemies  without  their  aid.  It  is  no  wonder  the  Sun 
was  in  heaven  all  that  day.  jSTow,  had  it  been  our  luminary  that 
Joshua  addressed,  it  would  have  required  nearly  fourteen  years 
for  the  command  to  have  reached  his  burning  and  anxious  ear. 
Astronomers  tell  us  that  if  one  end  of  a  chain  could  be  attached 
to  the  sun  and  the  otlier  end  to  this  planet,  and  they  should  start 
opposite  directions,  it  would  take  about  one  decade  to  tighten  the 
chain.  But  orthodoxans  ask :  Could  not  the  Lord  hear  Joshua, 
and  so  stop  the  sun  at  once  ?  What  the  Lord  could  have  done  I 
cannot  say,  but  in  this  case  the  most  convenient  thing  would  have 
been  to  apply  the  brakes  to  our  own  little  car-wheel,  and  stop  its 
revolving  on  its  axis,  without  calling  to  an  object  95,000,000  of 
miles  distant ! 

Thus  it  seems  to  me  that  we  cannot  fail  to  see  that  the  meta- 
phorical exegesis  is  the  only  consistent  and  correct  one.  We 
would  be  startled  at  such  literal  construction  now,  when  we  make 
use  of  the  same  kind  of  metaphor  that  was  used  then.  We  call 
a  fearless,  brave  man  a  lion,  without  dreaming  of  his  having  four 
legs ;  a  meek  one,  a  lamb,  and  so  on,  and  make  nothing  strange 
of.it.  Suppose  our  late  war  had  been  recorded  in  the  Bible,  how 
many  miracles  could  have  been  manufactured  to  astonish  future 
generations. 

For  instance,  the  walls  of  Sunipter  were  said  to  be  sixteen  feet 
thick,  of  solid  masonry,  three  or  four  times  the  resisting  power  of 
the  walls  of  Jericho,  and  see  how  quickly  they  tumbled  down  at 
the  sound  of  the  voices  of  three  little  swamp-angels !  This  was 
the  printed  literature  of  the  day  that  went  all  over  the  world  — 
yet  the  event  at  Jericho  is  said  to  be  a  great  miracle,  because  the 
walls  of  that  town  fell  at  the  sound  of  seven  rams-horns. 

]S^ow,  any  wall  of  a  given  thickness  has  a  certain  power  of 
resistance  per  square  inch,  which  must  be  overcome  ere  the  tumb- 
ling down  will  commence.  Historians  give  ample  proof  of  the 
Jews'  mode  of  battering  down  walls.  Jericho  was  not  an  excep- 
tion. Those  troopers,  with  the  rams-horns,  were  doubtless  the 
watch  for  those  engaged  in  fixing  their  usual  battering-rams  to  be 


126  Bible  METArnoR, 

moved  by  two  or  three  thousand  men,  at  a  given  signal,  which 
was  when  the  seventh  long  blast  was  sounded.  The  account  is 
doubtless  true,  that  the  walls  fell  at  that  signal.  It  is  no  benefit 
to  sacred  writ,  for  designing  men  to  try  to  make  the  scriptures 
more  than  true  to  stimulate  our  gaping  marvelousness.  Had 
there  been  no  elementary  force  besides  the  rams-horns  brought  to 
l)ear  on  the  walls,  they  might  have  galloped  and  tooted  till  the 
crack  of  doom,  and  not  one  brick  would  have  moved  from  its 
resting  place.  Again,  look  at  our  metaphor,  in  war  times,  slightly 
clothed  in  Bible  language.  Behold,  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  in 
the  Southland  trained  a  band  of  Louisiana  Tigers,  fierce  and 
powerful,  to  tear  in  pieces  God's  chosen  army  (?).  But  the  "  Lord 
fought  for  Israel,"  and  defeated  them  with  great  slaughter,  and 
the  remnant  fled  in  utter  confusion  to  their  dens,  canebrakes  and 
swamps  for  safety,  and  the  Lord  triumphed !  But  the  enemy,  not 
wholly  subdued,  trained  a  host  of  Copperheads  and  tied  fire- 
brands between  their  tails,  and  sent  them  to  "  burn  the  shocks  " 
and  supplies  of  the  armies  of  Israel.  But,  instead,  lo  and  behold  ! 
God  turned  their  Aveapons  against  them,  and  bui-ned  the  whole 
region  with  fire,  and  smote  it  with  the  sword,  from  the  land  of 
cane  and  cotton  even  to  the  great  sea !  All  this  only  goes  to  show 
with  what  ease  metaphor  may  be  made  to  resemble  fact.  The 
prophet's  she  bears  only  differed  from  the  Louisiana  Tigers  in 
gender,  and  Samson's  foxes  had  just  as  many  legs  and  tails  each 
as  the  Copperheads,  and  no  more.  To  be  tied  by  the  tails  is  to 
be  joined  by  the  lower  passions  for  evil.  To  be  tied  by  the  heads 
is  to  be  joined  by  the  higher  and  nobler  faculties  for  good.  It 
was  well  said  that  Samson's  foxes  were  tied  together  by  their  tails 
with  fire  between  them.  Had  it  been  four-legged  foxes,  they 
would  have  had  more  concern  for  their  tails  than  for  the  shocks 
of  the  Philistines.  But  the  orthodox  would  have  us  believe  that 
God  could  so  fix  the  fire-brands  between  their  tails  that  it  Avon  Id 
neither  burn  them  nor  the  string  with  which  it  was  tied  !  It  is 
this  kind  of  literalizing  impossibilities  that  makes  infidels  by 
hundreds.  Wherever  it  is  possible,  we  should  take  a  connnon- 
sense  view  of  Bible  history,  and  not  strive  to  convert  it  into 
impossible  marvels.  Theire  are  many  apparently  miraculous 
statements  in  the  good  book  that  admit  of  a  rational  exegesis,  to 
some  of  which  I  may  hereafter  refer,  but  cannot  do  so  now.  The 
orthodox  call  this  meddling  with  God's  word.  But  it  is  well 
to  remember  that  it  is  a  child  that  has  been  lost  and  found,  and 


Bible  Manipulation.  127 

has  been  greatly  meddled  with  by  various  Sanhedrims  and  coun- 
cils of  carnal  men,  for  many  centuries  past ;  the  most  of  whom 
were  inclined  to  exaggeration  —  to  color  and  magnify,  if  not  to 
mystify,  the  word ;  and  the  great  wonder  is  that  it  has  come 
down  to  us  even  as  perfect  as  we  now  find  it.  It  is  at  the  present 
time  undergoing  another  manipulation  at  the  hands  of  a  lot  of 
sinners  in  England,  and  whether  it  will  be  improved  or  worsted 
we  shall  perhaps  learn  in  the  future.  They  are  doubtless  tainted 
with  the  Nicene  fraud,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  rearrange  nouns, 
verbs,  adjectives  and  adverbs,  so  as  to  give  them  a  meaning  at 
variance  with  the  original. 

The  things  to  which  Bible  statements  refer  are  either  possible 
or  impossible.  If  impossible  in  either  the  literal  or  metaphorical 
sense,  they  are  fi'audulent  interpolations  by  designing  men.  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  that  all  we  cannot  comprehend  is  fraud.  I 
refer  only  to  that  which  is  comprehensible  and  yet  impossible. 
But  the  orthodox,  in  defense  of  the  whole  as  it  is,  tell  us  that 
with  God  all  things  are  possible.  This,  I  say,  not  irreverently,  is 
a  mistaken  declaration.  It  is  impossible  for  any  power  to  cause 
a  thing  to  be  and  not  to  be  at  the  same  time,  or  to  make  two  par- 
ticles of  matter  occupy  the  same  point  in  space  at  the  same  time. 
It  is  no  sacrilege  to  affirm  that  things  which  are  absolutely  im- 
possible are  as  much  so  with  God  as  with  men,  but  this  is  not 
affirming  that  there  are  not  things  possible  with  God  that  are 
impossible  with  men.  In  Bible  history,  as  I  have  endeavored  to 
show,  there  are  many  statements,  which,  if  taken  literally,  seem 
absurd  and  impossible,  but  when  metaphorically  considered  are 
found  to  be  in  harmony  with  scientific  truth.  This  should  cause 
us  all  to  hesitate  in  condemning  that  which  we  do  not  yet.  under- 
stand. Truth,  as  a  whole  or  in  parts,  is  a  harmony  either  natural 
or  spiritual,  or  both  together,  and  wherever  there  is  the  least 
clashing  there  is  error  either  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  or  both. 
Too  carnal  to  understand  spiritual  things,  some  great  writers  call 
us  back  from  the  inspired  word  to  nature.  John  Weiss,  a  gospel 
minister,  so  called,  and  one  of  the  most  able  writers  of  the  age, 
after  having  given  orthodox  revivalism  in  the  Radical  Review  a 
severe  scourging,  has  nothing  for  us  to  fall  back  on  but  nature. 
He  says :  "  The  spasms  of  lecture  rooms  and  tabernacles  cannot 
galvanize  a  soul  back  into  that  corpse  whose  crime  has  been  that 
it  lived  by  false  pretenses  on  the  human  heart.  If  a  great  people 
would  tingle  with  revival,  let  it  stand  in  the  circuit  of  nature  and 


128  Bible  Metaphor. 

permit  the  element  to  steam  through  it,"  etc.  This  is  just  what 
the  infidel  world  has  been  doing  for  centuries,  and  what  have 
they  to  show  for  Nature's  revival  ?  Intellectually,  something. 
Spiritually,  nothing.  Nature  alone,  without  God's  internal  in- 
spirations, would  take  the  whole  world  back  behind  the  fig-leaf 
dispensation.  The  difficulty  with  this  class  of  giant  intellects  is, 
they  keep  looking  into  nature  in  then-  search  for  God,  and  find 
just  as  much  as  a  bat  does,  and  seem  to  think  intellect  is  spirit. 
All  such  will  yet  have  to  learn  that  in  order  to  be  saved  they 
must  find  God  in  His  order  of  finite  agents,  and  where  He  has 
"placed  His  name  for  salvation."  Zion  is  that  place.  (Isa.  xlvi, 
13.)  God  is  consistent  with  Himself ;  He  will  not  establish  an 
order  for  the  redemption  of  man,  and  then  save  him  standing  in 
nature  waiting  for  her  tingling  inspirations. 

"  But  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of 
God ;  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him,  neither  can  he  know 
them,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned."  —  I  Cor.  ii,  14. 


CONCEPTION  OF  CHRIST. 


The  text  I  have  chosen  to-day  may  be  found  in  John  iii,  6 : 
' '  That  which  is  horn  of  flesh  is  flesh;  that  which  is  horn  of  the  spirit 
is  spirit.''^  We  extend  the  text,  and  say,  that  which  is  begotten 
of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and  that  which  is  begotten  of  the  spirit  is 
spirit. 

Mankind  are  divided  into  many  classes,  but  may  be  reduced 
to  two.  Matei'iahstic  evohitionists  make  them  the  same,  contra- 
vening the  assertion  of  Locke  that  matter  cannot  think,  and  that 
no  new  property  is  added  to  it  by  change  of  position  and  rela- 
tion. I.  In  proof  of  their  position,  they  assert  that  matter  invis- 
ible is  sensitive,  because  certain  plants  will  shrink  from  human 
touch;  hence  the  matter  of  its  formation  must  have  contained 
the  sensitive  quality  betbre  the  plant  was  formed.  II.  They  fur- 
ther assert  that  some  plants  are  carniverous,  and  destroy  animal 
or  insect  life  for  their  growth  and  sustenance  ;  and  here  the  evi- 
dence of  thought  begins  and  extends  in  the  higher  growths,  to 
animal  and  man,  all  of  which  are  matter.  "  All  flesh  is  grass." 
This  year  the  grass  grows ;  it  is  turned  under,  and  next  year  it 
is  corn,  and  the  next  it  is  animal,  and  the  next  it  is  man.  Thus 
evohition  makes  man,  with  sensation  and  thought,  from  the  "  dust 
of  the  ground,"  and  in  this  it  triumphantly  tells  us  that  it  stands 
on  Bible  ground.  But  how  will  it  do  to  say  all  flesh  is  spirit  ? 
Here  the  evolutionist  steps  oif  of  Bible  ground  into  impenetrable 
darkness,  because  he  ignores  the  great, .  grand  over-thought,  the 
cause  of  the  flrst  atom  and  the  first  thought ;  or,  he  might  recog- 
nize the  further  Bible  doctrine  of  the  breathing  in  something  dis- 
tinct from  matter,  and  learn  that  whatsoever  is  liorn  of  the  spirit  is 
spirit,  and  not  matter ;  and  thus  not  lose  sight  of  the  philosophy 
which  teaches  that  these  are  contradictory  substances  which  are 
neither  blendable  nor  interchangeable.  There  are  substances  in 
matter  that  cannot  be  really  made  to  touch  nor  intermingle  with- 
out the  introduction  of  a  third. 

Where  the  touch  is  complete,  a  real  union  is  formed.  Could 
17 


130  Conception  of  Christ. 

you  bring  two  boards  into  full  contact,  you  would  need  no  glue 
to  hold  tlieni  together.  But  I  am  wandering.  Spirit  and  matter, 
being  contradictory  substances,  tactualization  becomes  impossible. 
That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh.  Jesus  was  born  of  a 
woman  wiio  was  flesh ;  consequently,  Jesus  was  flesh.  But  He 
was  afterward  born  of  the  spirit.  "  Marvel  not  that  I  say  ye 
must  be  born  again,"  [as  I  have  been].  It  is  not  rational  to  sup- 
pose that  Jesns  could  have  been  born  like  us,  unless  He  had  been 
begotten  like  us.  In  support  of  this,  I  will  cite  you  to  Bible 
testimony.  It  is  said,  Rom.  viii,  29,  that  Christ  was  the  first 
born  among  many  brethren.  This  has  reference  to  the  spiritual 
birth — being  born  of  the  spirit  out  of  a  sinful  nature;  and  all 
that  receive  this  new  birth  are  brethren.  That  which  is  born  of 
the  spirit  is  spirit.  Again,  I  Cor.  v,  20th  :  "  Christ  is  the  head 
of  the  body,  the  first  born  from  the  dead."  To  become  His 
brethren,  then,  we  must  be  begotten  and  born  from  the  dead, 
spiritually  as  He  was.  Without  this  we  cannot  be  called  His 
brethren,  neither  could  He  designate  us  as  such.  ISTo  one  can  be 
numbered  with,  and  become  one  of  His  brethren  while  living  the 
worldly  life,  whether  he  be  professor  or  profane.  But  now  Christ 
is  risen  from  the  dead  and  become  the  first  fruits  of  them  that 
slept.  For  since  by  man  came  death,  by  man  also  came  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead. —  I  Cor.  xv,  20,  21. 

The  lesson  to  be  learned  from  this  is,  first,  Jesus  was  a  man 
born  of  the  flesh,  like  His  brethren  w^ere ;  and,  second,  that  He 
had  been  dead  to  that  spiritual  life  into  which  He  rose.  He  could 
not  have  risen  from  the  dead  except  He  had  been  dead  ;  but  being 
born  of  the  spirit,  by  obedience  to  God,  His  spirit  arose  from  the 
dead,  and  this  was  His  true  resurrection,  to  which  He  always  had 
reference,  and  not  that  of  the  material  body ;  and  this  must  be 
the  resurrection  of  all  who  are  ever  saved  —  for  whatsoever  is 
born  of  the  spirit  is  spirit.  Having  led  you  along  thus  far,  I 
will  now  call  your  attention  to  the  two  first  chapters  of  Matthew's 
and  Luke's  gospels,  which  treat  of  the  miraculous  conception  of 
Christ,  noting  the  fact  that,  of  the  four  gospels,  two  are  silent  on 
the  subject,  a  very  great  and  culpable  neglect  sm*ely,  if  the  state- 
ment be  true. 

That  it  has  been  clearly  shown  to  be  spurious  by  able  writers, 
precludes  the  necessity  of  my  going  outside  the  sacred  volume 
for  evidence  pro  or  con.  I  would,  however,  thus  far  deviate  as 
to  let  you  know  that  the  oldest  Greek  copy  now  extant  is  in  the 


That  which  is  born  of   Flesh  is    Flesh.  131 

English  Museain  in  London,  and  is  written  in  Greek  capitals. 
In  this  copy  the  four  gospels  all  begin  alike,  at  the  baptism  of 
John,  showing  that  the  story  has  been  introduced  and  added  to 
Matthew's  and  Luke's  gospels  at  some  later  period.  But  this  I 
leave. 

The  first  Scripture  text  which  is  generally  admitted  to  refer  to 
Christ  is  found  in  Deuteronomy — the  last  book  of  the  Pentateuch, 
V.  18,  chap.  15,  and  reads:  "  A  prophet  shall  the  Lord  your  Grod 
raise  up  unto  you,  of  your  brethren,  like  unto  me.  Him  shall  ye 
hear."  This  is  to  the  point  and  sustains  the  text.  "  That  which 
is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh."  The  prophet  spoken  of  by  Moses 
is  acknowledged  to  be  the  Christ,  who  was  not  only  to  be  like 
Moses,  who  was  the  Christ  of  the  law  dispensation  and  type  of 
Jesus,  but  like  Him  "  raised  up  of  the  brethren " —  that  is,  of 
their  stock  or  race ;  of  the  seed  of  Abraham  and  David.  It 
then  cannot  fail  to  be  seen  that  these  first  words  spoken  of  Christ 
deny  the  miraculous  story.  But  further,  Isa.  xii,  1 :  "  And 
there  shall  come  forth  a  root  out  of  the  stem  of  Jesse,  and  a 
branch  shall  grow  up  out  of  his  roots,  and  the  spirit  of  the  Lord 
shall  rest  upon  him  —  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding." 
This  was  clearly  and  literally  fulfilled  in  Jesus,  both  in  the  natural 
and  spiritual  point  of  view.  Let  it  be  observed,  He  was  to  come 
of  Jesse,  not  from  the  stellar  regions,  but  was  to  grow  up  out  of 
his  roots,  thus  flatly  denying  the  miraculous  statement.  Again, 
Jeremiah,  xxiii,  5  :  "  Behold,  saith  the  Lord,  the  days  come  that 
I  will  raise  unto  David  a  righteous  branch ;  and  He  shall  be  called 
the  Lord  our  righteousness."  And  Micah,  v,  2 .  "  But  thou, 
Bethlehem  Ephratah,  though  thou  be  little  among  the  thousands 
of  Judah,  out  of  thee  shall  He  come  forth  to  me  that  is  to  be  ruler 
in  Israel."  Thus  we  see  the  Prophets  are  in  harmony,  and  a  unit 
in  denying  the  miraculous  story,  and  point  directly  to  Jesus,  the 
man  Jesus,  as  the  Christ ;  one  who  was  begotten  and  born  of  the 
flesh  as  other  men.  Much  more  might  be  cited  to  the  same  effect 
in  the  Old  Testament,  but  I  must  not  be  too  tedious. 

I  turn  now  to  the  New  Testament,  beginning  with  Matthew,  i, 
1 :  "  The  book  of  the  generation  of  Jesus  Christ  the  son  of  David, 
the  son  of  Abraham."  Now  let  me  ask:  Who  does  not  know 
what  generation  means?  Then  the  son  of  David,  the  son  of 
Abraham,  and  consequently,  beyond  denial,  the  son  of  Joseph,  to 
whom  he  is  traced.  Thus  is  the  story  denied  before  it  is  told  ; 
and  X,  25  :  "  It  is  enough  that  the  disciple  be  as  his  Master,  and 


133  Conception  of  Christ. 

the  servant  as  his  Lord."  Now  please  notice  particularly  :  If  the 
disciple  was  as  his  Master  —  and  we  know  how  the  disciple  was — • 
we  then  know  how  the  Master  was.  But  further,  see  John  i, 
45 :  We  have  found  him  of  whom  Moses  and  the  prophets  did 
write,  "  Jesus  of  jSTazareth  the  Son  of  Joseph."  Thus  in  one 
brief  sentence  does  the  beloved  apostle  nail  the  whole  story  to 
the  counter,  and  confirm  what  the  prophets  foretold. 

But  I  am  reminded  that  this  same  apostle  has  also  said  that  He 
was  "  the  root  and  offspring  of  David ; "  and  am  asked :  How 
could  He  be  the  root  of  David  without  having  preceded  him  ? 
And  I  would  ask  :  How  could  He  be  the  offspring  of  David  with- 
out succeeding  him  ?  But  I  will  explain  :  He  was  born  of  the 
Spirit  before  David,  and  spiritually  preceded  him- — -and  was, 
therefore,  the  root  of  David.  He  succeeded  him  in  being  born 
of  the  flesh,  and  hence  was  the  offspring  of  David.  He  was, 
therefore,  the  root  of  David  by  regeneration,  and  the  offspring  of 
David  by  generation.  So  the  apostle  said  truly  :  "  He  is  the  root 
and  offspring  of  David,"  which  could  not  have  been  said  of  Him 
had  He  not  been  flesh  —  born  of  the  flesh. 

So  readily  do  all  the  texts  of  the  good  book  come  to  the  support 
of  the  truth  when  properly  understood.  But  still  more,  viii, 
40  :  "  But  now  ye  seek  to  kill  me,  a  onan  that  hath  told  you  the 
truth  which  I  have  heard  from  God."  It  seems  that  none  but  the 
willful  can  possibly  mistake  the  meaning  of  the  good  apostle 
John,  who  declares  in  plain  words,  that  Jesus  was  the  son  of 
Joseph,  and  Luke  and  Matthew,  put  the  story  at  variance  with 
itself.  In  chapter  1,  verse  32,  the  angel  Gabriel  is  made  to  use 
the  following  emphatic  language  to  Mary :  "  Thou  shalt  conceive 
and  bring  forth  a  son,  and  the  Lord  shall  give  unto  Him  the 
throne  of  His  father  David."  He  did  not  say  of  His  father 
Holy  Ghost,  nor  His  father  God,  but  His  father  David. 

The  angel  Gabriel  did  not  so  much  as  hint  that  He  should  be 
miraculously  conceived.  Also  chapter  2,  verse  41 :  "  His  parents, 
Joseph  and  Mary,  went  yearly  to  Jerusalem ; "  and  verse  48 : 
"  Sou,  why  hast  thou  dealt  so  with  us?  Thy  father  and  I  have 
sought  Thee  sorrowing."  She  did  not  say,  Thy  Holy  Ghost 
father,  nor  Thy  father  God,  has  been  seeking  Thee.  Evidently 
it  was  Joseph  and  Mary  who  were  the  anxious  and  sorrowing 
couple.  Chapter  2,  verse  23 :  "  And  Jesus  being  the  son  of 
Joseph,  the  son  of  Heli."  I  would  further  cite  you  to  Acts,  ii, 
30  :  "  God  hath  sworn  with  an  oath  to  David,  that  of  the  fruit  of 


Plain  Evidence.  133 

his  loins  according  to  the  flesh,  He  would  raise  up  Christ."  Jesus 
was  this  fruit ;  and  xiii,  23,  is  plainer  still :  "  Of  this  man's  seed 
hath  God,  according  to  His  promise,  raised  unto  Israel  a  Saviour, 
Jesus."  It  is  perfectly  clear,  if  the  apostle  knew  what  he  was 
talking  about,  that  Christ  could  not  have  been  miraculously  con- 
ceived. Romans,  i,  3  :  "  Concerning  His  Son  Jesus  Christ,  which 
was  made  of  the  seed  of  David,  according  to  the  flesh,  and 
declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  with  power  according  to  the 
spirit  of  holiness  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead."  How  clear 
these  words  are  to  the  unbiased  mind.  First — Made  of  the  seed 
of  David  according  to  the  flesh ;  born  of  the  flesh  and  was  flesh. 
Secondly— Declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  by  his  resurrection  from 
his  former  dead  estate ;  born  of  the  spirit  and  was  spirit ;  now  a 
spiritual,  instead  of  a  natural  man. 

Thus  have  I  giv^en  you  a  chain  of  evidence  showing  the  perfect 
harmony  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  on  this  subject,  and 
proving,  beyond  dispute,  that  Jesus  was  not  miraculously  begot- 
ten nor  conceived.  This  miraculous  story  is  a  Catholic  teat,  from 
which  the  Protestant  ch\irches  have  been  drawing  nutriment  from 
the  days  of  Luther  down  to  Beecher.  Tertullian,  one  of  the 
early  Catholic  fathers,  born  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  our 
era,  has  given  the  most  plausible  and  ingenious  mode  of  Christ's 
introduction  into  this  world,  to  sustain  the  story,  that  I  have  any- 
where noticed.  It  is  this :  "  As  the  branch  is  not  separate  from 
the  root,  the  river  from  its  fountain,  nor  the  ray  from  the  sun,  so 
the  word  (Christ)  is  not  separated  from  God,  and  this  ray  of  God, 
passing  into  a  certain  virgin,  became  flesh  in  her  womb,  and  was 
born  a  man  mixed  with  God ;  the  flesh,  animated  by  the  spirit, 
was  nourished,  grew,  spoke,  taught,  operated,  and  this  (flesh)  was 
Christ."  This  fictitious  story  is  told  in  the  most  serious  earnest- 
ness by  the  author  of  many  volumes,  he  being  one  of  the  most 
learned  divines  of  his  day.  But  it  will  be  perceived  that,  while 
he  favors  the  miraculous  story,  he  admits  that  Jesus  was  the 
Christ. 

But  where  did  the  animated  flesh  come  from  ?  Was  the  ray 
that  entered  the  virgin  matter,  or  spirit  ?  If  it  was  not  separated 
from  God,  how  did  it  become  His  Son  ?  If  the  ray  that  came  from 
God  and  became  flesh  in  the  virgin  was  not  separated  from  God, 
but  a  part  of  Him,  then  God  is  Himself  matter,  because  spirit  and 
matter  are  not  interchangeable.  If  it  was  spirit,  it  could  not 
become  flesh.     Besides,  God  cannot  become  mixed  up  with  flesh. 


134  Conception  of  Chkist 

And  if  God  is  omnipresent,  He  was  in  Mary  before  the  ray.  The 
question  would  then  arise :  Whence  came  the  ray  ?  He  says 
from  God.  But  where  was  God  ?  On  all  these  points,  the  Holy 
Father  leaves  us  in  Cimmerian  darkness.  The  subject,  at  least,  is 
awfully  mixed,  and  asseverations  senseless ;  at  the  same  time,  it 
is  the  best  argument  extant  favoring  the  postulate  that  Christ  was 
miraculously  conceived ;  and  the  world  must,  indeed,  be  in  its 
babyhood  to  accept  such  cob- house  for  a  real  abiding  place.  The 
logic,  syllogistically,  stands  thus  : 

First  —  Sumption God  is  immaculate. 

Second  —  Subsumption  But  Jesus  is  God. 

Ergo   Jesus  is  immaculate . 

But  the  second  premise,  or  subsumption,  is  false  in  the  sense 
intended.  The  same  false  logic  is  applied  to  Mary.  Pope  Pius 
IX  made  the  discoveiy  that  Jesus,  in  His  conception  and  birth, 
could  not  be  free  from  taint,  while  His  Mother  was  tainted,  and 
he  decided  that  Mary  must  also  have  been  free  from  taint,  and  so 
told  one  lie  to  cover  another;  and,  thus  emblazoned,  stands  the 
false  logic : 

First  —  Sumption   The  Mother  of  Jesus  was  immaculate. 

Second  —  Subsumption But  Mary  was  the  Mother  of  Jesus. 

Ergo Mary  was  immaculate. 

The  church  ratified  it.  The  bull  was  published,  and  thereafter 
all  who  disputed  it  were  accounted  heretics.  So  there  was  another 
lie  saddled  on  the  church.  It  is  true  that  Jesus  became  immacu- 
late ;  but  the  means  by  which  He  became  so  are  ignored  by  the 
whole  learned  world.  He  became  so  by  accepting  the  order  of 
God  in  John,  who  preceded  Him,  and  by  confessing,  forsaking, 
living  above,  and  free  from  all  sin.  And  all  who  are  to  be 
redeemed,  must  become  immaculate  in  the  same  manner.  There 
is  no  climbing  up  some  other  way ;  we  must  climb  up  the  same 
way  that  Christ  did.  The  dogma  of  the  foreign  origin  of  Christ 
was  first  promulgated  by  Cerynthus,  a  learned  Greek  scholar  of 
Rome.  This  was  a  short  time  previous  to  the  death  of  the  beloved 
Apostle  John,  about  the  year  100.  They  met  in  Ephesus,  where 
the  former  was  promulgating  his  new  doctrine  of  the  super-angelic 
origin  of  Christ  —  that  He  was  a  high- created  spirit  that  came 
from  the  Pleroma  and  took  possession  of  the  body  of  Jesus  at  the 
baptism  of  John.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  aged  apostle,  who 
had  leaned  on  the  bosom  of  Christ  at  the  last  supper,  and  who 
was  the  only  one  of  His  disciples  that  attended  him  and  wit- 


Convertible  Terms.  135 

nessed  His  crucifixion,  and  who  had  the  best  right  to  know  of 
any  one  then  living,  denounced  the  doctrine  in  the  most  vehement 
language. 

In  the  first  epistle  to  his  brethren  he  said  :  "  I  have  not  written 
because  ye  know  not  the  truth,  but  because  ye  know  it,  and  that 
no  lie  is  the  truth.  Who  is  a  liar  but  he  that  denieth  that  Jesus 
is  the  Christ  ?  He  is  anti-Christ."  Thus  the  good  apostle  met  it 
at  the  threshold  with  such  testimony  as  should  have  put  a  quietus 
upon  it  for  all  time.  But  he  passed  away,  and  it  was  persisted  in 
to  escape  the  odium  of  the  false  accusation  that  the  Christians 
worshiped  a  dead  Jew. 

Thus  it  became  engrafted  on  the  church,  and  proved  to  be  the 
entering  wedg-e  that  rent  the  church  asunder.  Since  which  time 
the  Christ  subject  has  been  classed  among  the  mysteries.  We 
are  asked  such  questions  as  these :  Which  is  the  world's  Saviour, 
Jesus  or  Christ  ?  Was  not  Jesus  a  medium  for  the  Cln'ist  spirit, 
etc.?  To  which  I  answer:  First  —  Jesus  the  Christ,  or,  as  the 
apostle  has  it,  "  The  man  Christ  Jesus,"  is  the  Saviour  of  the 
saved.  He  cannot  be  the  Saviour  of  the  lost,  and  none  are  or 
can  be  saved  except  they  follow  Him.  He  calls  to  the  world  and 
says  follow  me,  not  Moses,  nor  John  the  Baptist,  but  me.  Sec- 
ondly —  He  could  not  be  the  medium  for  the  Christ  spirit,  because 
He  was  Himself  the  Christ  or  Messiah.  We  might  as  well  ask : 
Was  Jesus  not  a  medium  for  the  Messiah?  Tlie  Christ  sjjh' it 
and  sjoirit  of  Christ  are  convertible  terms ;  what  one  means  the 
otlier  means.  If,  by  denying  myself  and  following  Christ,  I  have 
so  far  changed  my  spirit,  temper,  desires  and  habits  as  to  be  moved 
and  actuated  as  Christ  was,  then  I  shall  possess  and  have  in  me 
the  spirit  of  Christ  or  Christ  spirit  —  not  a  double  entity,  but 
simply  have  my  spirit  changed  from  the  worldly  to  be  as  Christ's 
spirit  was.     This  is  clear. 

The  saying  of  the  apostle  that  "  Jesus  Christ  is  in  you,  except 
ye  be  reprobates,"  does  not  mean  that  we  are  to  literally  have  the 
man  Jesus,  soul  and  body,  within  us.  His  true  followers  are  in 
Him,  and  He  in  them,  in  all  the  works  and  walks  of  life  —  "  as 
thou.  Father,  art  in  me  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  may  be  one  in  us, 
that  the  world  may  believe  that  thou  hast  sent  me."  —  John  xvii, 
21.  This  is  the  key  to  unlock  the  mystery  about  Christ  being  in 
us,  etc.  Jesus  never  spake  of  such  a  thing  as  a  foreign  Christ 
spirit  inhabiting  His  person  and  controlling  Him  :  but  says  thou. 
Father,  art  in  me,  etc. 

Christ  Jesus  obeyed  God  in  always  doing  the  things  that  pleased 


136  Conception  of  Christ. 

tlie  Father  instead  of  doing  His  own  will,  and  we  must  obey  Him, 
and  walk  as  He  walked,  or  fail  of  salvation.  This  a  child  may 
understand.  It  seems  obvious  that  we  cannot  follow  a  spirit 
which  was  created  impeccable  —  pnre^  spotless  and  sinless,  from 
some  foreign  world,  who  knows  not  experimentally  any  thing 
about  our  trials,  lusts  and  divers  temptations.  Such  angel  could 
not  succor  ns  :  could  not  know  how  to  S3^mpatliize  with  us.  We 
must  have  just  such  a  high  priest  as  was  Christ  Jesus,  of  whom 
the  Apostle  Paul  says :  "  For  we  have  not  an  high  priest  which 
cannot  be  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities,  but  was  in 
all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are."  —  Heb.  iv,  15. 

If  Christ  was  a  foreign  spirit  which  entered  into  Jesus  to  con- 
trol His  action  and  speak  through  Him.  what  credit  can  Jesus 
have  ?  How  did  His  own  arm  bring  Him  salvation  ?  We  are 
enjoined  to  follow  Him,  and  "  walk  as  He  walked."  How  can 
we  know  how  a  Christ  from  a  foi-eign  world  walked  ?  Where  He 
came  from  and  whither  He  went?  And,  if  Jesus  had  to  be 
miraculously  begotten  and  conceived  in  order  to  enable  Him  to 
obey  the  Father  and  be  an  example  to  the  world,  what  must 
become  of  us  who  were  "  conceived  in  sin  and  brought  forth  in 
iniquity  ? "  To  put  us  on  grounds  of  capability,  and  enable  us  to 
work  out  our  salvation  as  He  did,  we  should  all  have  been  miracu- 
lously begotten  and  conceived. 

It  were  unreasonable,  very,  to  require  us  who  were  conceived 
in  sin  to  follow  one  who  was  "  conceived  by  a  ray  of  light  from 
the  body  of  God ; "  or  begotten  by  some  angel  sent  from  His 
throne  for  that  purpose.  We  may  rest  assured  that  this  is  the 
work  of  the  deceiver,  to  make  us  believe  that  we  may  "  continue 
in  sin  that  grace  may  abound "  —  that  we  cannot  follow  Christ, 
and  must  be  saved  by  His  merits.  We  may  hug  this  delusion  to 
our  bosom,  and  nestle  it  in  our  heart  of  hearts,  but  sooner  or 
later  to  our  sorrow  we  must  learn  how  much  we  have  been  de- 
ceived, and  realize  the  truth  of  the  text,  that  whatsoever  is  born 
of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and  whatsoever  is  born  of  the  spirit  is  spirit, 
and  that  such  was  the  case  of  our  Exemplar,  who  was  first  born 
of  the  flesh  and  afterward  of  the  spirit. 

The  way  is  now  open  for  every  sin-sick  soul  to  enter  the  new 
])irth  and  to  be  made  a  new  creature ;  and  now  is  the  loud  call. 
The  trumpet's  blast  from  Zion's  God  is  come,  and  the  Father  and 
Mother  say  come,  "The  Spirit  and  the  Bride  say  come;  and  let 
him  or  her  that  is  athirst  come ;  and  whosoever  will  let  him  or 
her  come  and  take  the  waters  of  life  freely." 


ORTHODOXY  AND  SPIRITUALISM. 


All  creedal,  religions  denominations  consider  their  own  xo  be 
orthodox  and  those  who  differ  with  them  heterodox  ;  and  as  in 
what  I  propose  to  say  to-day,  no  one  particular  profession  of 
religion  will  be  singled  out,  I  will,  for  brevity's  sake,  use  the  new 
term  orthodoxan,  which,  in  this  discourse,  w^ill  include  all  religious 
professors  who  hold  to  one  dogma  in  common,  to  wit :  the  trinity 
of  the  Absolute,  or  three  Gods  in  one.  Ko  blame  is  attachable 
to  any  individual,  nor  any  organized  body  now  existing,  for  enter- 
taining it ;  because  it  is  a  kind  of  spiritual  heir-loom  which  has 
been  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation  for  fifteen  hun- 
dred years.  After  the  falling  away  of  the  primitive  Christian 
church  at  Jerusalem,  heathen  rites,  ceremonies  and  doctrines  were 
introduced,  among  which  was  the  dogma  named  above  —  and  the 
poor,  but  true  followers  of  Christ  were  banished.  In  the  year 
of  grace  325,  Constantino,  the  bloody  Emperor  of  Rome,  called 
a  General  Council  at  Nice  to  settle  the  disputes  that  had  arisen 
and  establish  the  doctrines  which  were  to  be  received  by  the  so- 
called  church.  It  was  at  this  council,  with  about  2,000  persons 
in  attendance,  after  much  heated  controversy,  which  lasted  nearly 
three  months,  that  this  false  dogma  in  part  was  forced  upon  the 
world ;  here  it  was  "  conceived  in  sin  and  brought  forth  in 
iniquity,"  and  was  full  fledged  in  another  council  held  at  Constan- 
tinople about  a  half  a  century  later. 

It  was  here  decided  that  Christ  was  not  "raised  up  from 
among  the  brethren  "  to  be  an  example  for  them  to  follow  accord- 
ing to  the  scriptures,  but  that  He  was  God  Himself,  who  had 
descended  and  assu  ued  the  proportions  and  form  of  man,  and 
was  no  longer  "  an  example  that  we  should  follow  His  steps." 
1  Pet.  ii,  21.  Her  ;,  by  these  bloodthirsty  sinners,  Christ  was 
regularly  installed  the  second  person  in  the  God-head,  or  God 
No.  2.  After  the  dispersion  of  the  Council,  it  was  discovered 
that  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  had  overshadowed  the  Virgin  at 
Christ's  conception,  had  been  sadly  neglected,  whereupon  a  dis- 
18 


138  Okthodoxy  and  Spiritualism. 

cussion  arose  in  the  churches  whicli  could  uot  he  settled  without 
calling  another  council.  This  God  was,  hj  some,  considered  to 
be  feminine,  and  it  was  a  question  of  difficult  solution  whose  wife 
she  should  be,  whether  of  the  Father  or  of  the  Son  —  of  God 
:N'o.  1  or  No.  2  ! 

Finally  the  second  Council  was  convened  at  Constantinople  in 
the  year  381,  when  the  Holy  Ghost  was  installed  as  God  No.  3, 
without  regard  to  gender.  Thus  was  saddled  upon  mankind  the 
most  inconsistent  and  impossible  dogma  that  man  could  invent, 
and  it  has  been  tenderlj^  nursed  in  the  arms  and  suckled  at  the 
breast  of  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  churches  from  that  day  to 
this.  These  half -heathen  sinners,  after  they  got  their  gods 
arranged  in  working  order,  proceeded  to  give  each  one  His  high 
office,  with  distinct  duties  to  perform.  The  Holy  Ghost  was  to 
act  as  a  kind  of  suavitor,  or  soothing  sweetener  between  the  other 
two.  Christ  was  to  be  a  reminder  of  No.  1  of  His  crucifixion 
and  death  ■ — •  a  kind  of  interpleader  for  the  human  race,  for  whom 
He  left  His  throne  and  becaine  man,  to  redeem.  As  false  and  absurd 
as  it  is,  even  to-day  your  clergy,  your  Moodys  and  Sankeys,  with 
their  psalm-singing  and  swelling  sobs  and  melting  tears  (them- 
selves confessedly  co-sinners),  implore  others  to  come  to  Jesus  — 
"  O,  come  to  Jesus  !  " —  Only  believe,  and  save  your  poor  souls 
from  hell-fire,  "  where  the  worm  dieth  not  and  the  fire  is  not 
quenched." —  O,  sinners,  "  to-day,  if  you  will  hear  His  voice 
harden  not  your  hearts  ;  "  "  don't  delay,  come  now."  "  Only 
believe,  and  Jesus  will  take  you  in  His  arms  and  you  are  safe  !  " 
and  much  more  of  the  same  sort,  fully  justifying  the  scathing 
ridicule  of  the  poet  Burns  in  "  Holy  Willie's  Prayer,"  which  is  a 
true  portraiture  of  the  effects  of  the  acceptance  of  the  triune 
doctrine,  and  of  being  saved  by  proxy.  The  Catholics  still  had 
another  step  to  take.  About  twenty  years  ago  a  Council  was 
called  by  Pope  Pio  Nino,  when  the  "  Returning  Board  "  finished 
their  work  by  introducing  the  fourth  person  into  the  God-head, 
and  Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus,  was  fairly  installed.  Protestants 
need  not  complain  of  this,  because  the  thing  cannot  be  worsted, 
and  seeing  there  were  two  males  there  already,  it  were  well 
to  have  two  females  also  to  aid  in  the  good  work  of  redemption  ! 
But  long  since  many  became  restless  and  dissatisfied  with  the 
Nicene  creed,  and  other  creeds  were  made  with  but  small  improve- 
ments. About  the  beginning  of  this  century  rents  were  made 
among  the  orthodox,  and  to-day   they  are  trying  to  weld  the 


Spiritualism   Examined.  139 

fragments  together.  The  noted  outpouring  of  the  Spmt  in  the 
great  Kentucky  revival  had  much  to  do  in  breaking  the  creedal 
bonds  with  which  they  were  fettered  ;  and  in  consequence  of  the 
corruption  and  the  faihire  of  the  churches  to  satisfy  the  soul- 
cravings  of  mankind,  thousands  have  left  it,  while  many  refuse 
to  unite  with  them,  and  are  now  turning  their  attention  to 
Spiritualism,  which  I  now  propose  to  examine  in  as  succinct  a 
manner  as  possible. 

In  the  year  1838,  a  great  outpouring  of  Spirit  power  was  be- 
stowed on  all  the  societies  of  Shakers,  with  the  daily  visitation 
of  the  spirits  of  departed  friends,  who  became  visible  to  many. 
This  was  about  ten  years  before  something  of  the  same  character 
began  in  the  world  outside  of  Shakers.  Hence,  we  are  justly 
called  Spiritualists.  But  there  are  two  classes  of  Spiritualists  — 
the  regenerative  and  the  generative.  We  are  the  former  ;  the 
Spiritualists  of  the  outside  world  are  the  latter.  These  two  classes 
stand  on  different  planes.  The  generative  stands  on  the  same 
plane  with  the  Orthodoxans ;  and  it  is  a  question  which  of  the 
two  are  nearer  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  They  both  practice  the 
same  works  in  actual  life  —  both,  perhaps,  with  equally  good 
intent.  The  orthodox  hold  to  Christ  in  some  shape.  The  spirit- 
ualists discard  Him  as  a  chosen,  heavenly  teacher,  but  weigh  Him 
in  the  scale  with  moral  reformers,  and  find  Him  wanting.  The 
orthodox  have  a  head  to  their  bodies ;  the  spiritualists  have  none. 
For  aught  I  see,  the  generative  spiritualists  must  keep  company 
with  the  generative  orthodoxans  in  the  rudimental  state  and  on 
the  lower  plane,  until  they  become  willing  to  unite  with  the  regen- 
erative spiritualists  on  the  higher  Christ  plane.  Spiritualism  has 
onlv  existed  with  us  of  the  reo-enerative  order  in  its  highest 
phase,  which  is  that  of  operating  upon  and  using  the  organs  of 
human  beings  to  communicate  their  mind  and  will  tons  ;  whereas, 
it  began  in  the  outside  world  by  raps,  and  moving  ponderable  sub- 
stances, which  still  continue  with  them.  It  was  but  natural  that 
they  should  rejoice  in  having  their  minds  disabused  by  their  spirit 
friends  in  relation  to  the  great  forged  lie  of  the  Nicene  Council 
and  the  fear  of  being  thrown  into  a  hell  of  burning  sulphur  the 
moment  they  were  released  from  the  mortal  tenement.  This 
should  have  made  them  humble  and  thankful,  but,  instead,  many 
of  them  are  puiFed  up,  boastful,  lustful  and  proud,  and  do  not 
seem  to  be  nearing  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  Failing,  sometimes, 
in  argument,  they,   like  the  orthodoxans,  depend  on  miracles ; 


140  ORTHODOXY    AND    SpiKITUALISM. 

those  of  the  former  being  wrought  by  God,  of  the  latter  by- 
spirits  and  hidden  law,  both  striving  to  convince  the  world  and 
bring  it  to  beheve  in  impossibilities.  The  orthodox  far  exceed  the 
spiritualists  in  startling  story,  beginning  with  making  a  woman 
of  a  man's  rib,  and  coming  down  to  Noah's  Ark,  serpents  from 
rods,  the  stationary  sun  and  moon,  the  banking  waters,  of  the 
Red  Sea,  and  hundreds  more  ;  none  of  which  are  miraculous 
when  the  metaphorical  language  of  the  book  in  which  they  are 
recorded  is  properly  understood. 

The  spiritualists  seem  equally  eager  to  impose  on  the  world 
impossible  things.  Their  bottom  plank  is  spirit  materialization 
and  dematerialization,  both  of  which  are  impossible.  Some  have 
gone  so  far  as  to  inarry  a  materialized  female  spirit  to  a  male  in 
the  body.  I  presume  they  left  off  the  part  of  the  usual  ceremony, 
"  until  death  do  us  part."  The  othciating  clergyman  affirms  that 
he  had  the  pleasure  of  kissing  the  spirit-bride  before  the  dema- 
terializing  process  commenced.  The  spiritualists  seem  to  cling 
as  adhesively  to  this  impossibility  as  do  the  orthodoxans  to  the 
miraculous  conception  of  Christ,  both  of  which  are  equally  false. 
After  the  oft-repeated  exposures  that  have  been  made,  their  faith 
seems  to  remain  unshaken.  For  the  present  it  must  suffice  for 
me  to  take  under  examination  one  of  their  most  noted  and  reliable 
mediums,  viz.  :  Cora  Y.  Richmond,  whose  inspirations  in  the  year 
1875,  while  under  the  control  of  the  spirit  of  Prof.  Mapes,  were 
in  accordance  with  truth  on  this  subject. 

The  Professor  then  said  :  "  I  now  retract  all  my  former  theory 
on  this  subject.  I  find  spirit  to  be  in  itself  an  essence,  which  by 
no  possibility  of  combination  in  matter  can  either  be  material  or 
created.  In  my  reasoning  I  shall  take  the  basis  of  the  non-spir- 
ituality of  atoms."  And  of  spirit-forms  he  says  :  "  Do  not  mistake 
these  forms  for  the  actual  spirit  forms  of  your  friends  ;  they  are 
neither  composed  of  the  same  substance  nor  in  any  loay  constructed 
as  is  the  spirit  in  the  spirit-land,  etc."  Here,  by  one  of  the  most 
reliable  Instruments  now  living,  the  possibility  of  materialization 
is  flatly  denied,  and  also  the  real  appearance  of  spirit  friends  to 
the  normal  eye.  This  is  most  undoubtedly  true.  We  also  have 
corroborating  testimony  from  Brother  Peeljles,  who  has  carried 
the  spiritual  flag  around  the  globe,  and  who,  when  he  was  visited 
by  the  spirit  of  Aaron  Knight,  he,  (Brother  P.)  supposing  he 
was  materialized,  remarked  to  the  spirit :  "  How  strange  it  was 
that  he  was  so  materialized."     But  the  spirit  answered  and  said  : 


Spirit  Vitalization.  141 

"Not  so  much  materialized  as  thou  art  spiritualized."  What 
must  we  now  think  of  Sister  Cora,  two  years  later,  speaking  for 
another  spirit  and  making  the  following  declaration  :  "  Facts  are 
better  than  hypotheses.  Spirit  materializations  do  occur ;  they 
take  on  every  appearance  of  human  beings ;  are  created  for  a 
time  and  disposed  of  at  the  end  of  a  given  time.  They  come  out  of 
seemingly  nothing,  and  disappear  again  into  nothingness,  except 
where  by  special  permission,  some  piece  of  raiment  or  lock  of 
hair  is  retained  as  a  souvenir  of  the  materialization."  Now, 
which  is  to  be  believed  —  the  former  or  the  latter  declaration  ? 
Both  cannot  be  true.  That  the  latter  cannot  be  true  admits  of  easy 
proof.  If  spirit  is  a  different  substance  and  distinct  from  matter, 
as  the  former  statement  avers,  they  are  contradictory.  If  they 
are  contradictory  they  can  neither  tactualize  nor  blend  ;  neither 
can  one  become  the  other.  On  the  other  hand,  if  sj^irit  is  not  a 
distinct  sul^stance  from  matter,  then  God  is  matter,  for  God  is 
spirit.  This,  the  most  thorough-going  spiritualist  will  not  deny, 
and,  being  unable  to  deny  it,  the  whole  spirit-materializing  theory 
falls  lifeless  to  the  ground  —  dead,  dead,  dead,  asserted  facts  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding  ;  and  thus  philosophically  and  log- 
ically failing  renders  it  certain  that  any  declared  materialization 
of  spirits  is  a  deception  or  fraud,  or  else  the  asserter,  being 
conditioned,  supposed  the  spirit  was  materialized  when  it  was  not. 
This  will  hold  good  in  the  face  of  millions  who  may  suppose  they 
have  seen  spirits  with  the  normal  eye.  But  if  they  really  do  see 
objects  with  the  normal  eye,  supposed  to  be  spirits,  they  may 
know  it  is  a  fraud.  So  I  fear  not  to  affirm  that  no  person  now 
on  earth,  or  that  ever  was  on  earth,  ever  saw  or  ever  will  see  a 
spirit  with  the  normal  eye.  The  contrary  assertion  is  as  gross  a 
blunder  in  the  generative  spiritualists  as  that  of  the  orthodoxans 
in  claiming  the  possibility  of  the  infinite  becoming  finite  ;  so  they 
should  cease  their  boasting  until  they  get  on  more  solid  ground. 
Impossibilities  cannot  be  made  possible  by  any  metamorphosing, 
although  millions  may  believe.  But  the  spirit,  through  the  me- 
dium, goes  on  to  inform  us  that  "  spirit  is  the  vitalizing  substance 
of  the  universe,  man  included."  This  spirit  vitalization  of  mat- 
ter contradicts  spirit  materialization  because  it  vitalizes  something 
besides  itself.  The  spirit  continues  :  "  Spirit  is  not  the  outgrowth 
of  matter,  but  matter  is  deducible  from  spirit."  To  help  out 
materialization,  the  editor  of  the  Banner  of  Light  steps  in  and 
says  :     "  Atom  is  the  ne  j^lus  idtra  of  divisibility  and  because  we 


142  Orthodoxy  and  Spiritualism. 

have  no  term  for  the  divisibility  of  matter,  we  have  a  right  to 
predicate  non-materiality  of  matter."  This  is  a  sheer  assump- 
tion ;  because  we  have  no  name  for  its  condition,  we  have  no 
logical  right  to  postulate  a  judgment  which  supposes  it  to  have 
changed  its  properties  and  assumed  others.  This  is  reducing  logic 
to  a  point  the  consistency  of  which  can  neither  be  discerned  by 
the  natural  nor  spiritual  eye ;  but  to  such  extremes  persons  are 
always  driven  who  hold  a  position  which  they  are  determined  to 
prove  to  be  true.  Locke  says  we  should  not  even  wish  a  thing 
to  be  true  niitil  we  have  proven  it  to  be  so.  We  can  have  no 
conception  of  the  ne  j)his  tdtra  matter,  any  more  than  that  of 
space.  But  the  spirit  further  instructs  us  through  Sister  Cora  : 
"By  the  spirit's  presence  atoms  are  attracted  and  food  is  assimi- 
lated. The  spirit,  separate  from  the  body,  is  alive,  has  veins  and 
arteries  of  etherealized  substances,  and  it  only  takes  one  or  two 
grades  more  of  material  to  make  the  spirit  form  palpable  to  the 
senses  ;  hence  this  is  the  process  of  materialization."  That  is  to 
say,  the  spirit,  separate  from  the  body,  has  material  veins  and 
arteries,  and,  with  a  trifle  more  of  matter  added,  spirit  materiali- 
zation is  accomplished  !  !  Should  we  not  be  thankful  for  this  in- 
formation ? 

But  the  spirit  sayeth  further  :  "  This  matter  which  is  added 
to  the  spirit  is  gathered  from  the  medium  and  those  surrounding 
him  or  her,  who  give  off  what  is  known  2ls,  psychic  force  ^  oy  nerve 
aura,  which  the  spirit  attracts  to  itself."  l^ow  psychic  force  is 
mind  force,  and  nerve  aura  is  dead  matter  discharged  from  the 
nervous  system ;  the  two  are  not  identical.  But  it  goes  on  to  say 
that  "  books,  jewels,  solid  iron  rings  and  human  beings  have 
passed  through  solid  substances,  into  and  out  of  rooms  without  any 
visible  apertures.  The  inverse  of  the  process  to  materialize  enables 
the  spirit  to  dematerialize."  Of  course,  were  one  possible  the 
other  would  be  also.  To  dematerialize  is  to  remove  or  take  away 
from  an  object  all  the  matter  it  contains.  When  this  is  done 
that  which  is  left  passes  through  the  solid  door.  In  the  case  of 
the  iron  ring  and  such  like  things  there  is  nothing  left  —  then 
nothing  passes  through  the  door.  But  it  is  insinuated  that  the 
matter  somehow  follows,  and  is  again  formed  into  a  solid  ring  on 
the  other  side  of  the  door.  It  is  then  said  the  solid  ring  \veiit 
through  the  solid  door.  Such  is  the  mode  of  dematerialization  !  One 
can  hardly  treat  such  reasoning  seriously.  This  puts  to  blush  all 
the  occult  magic  of  China  and  the  East  Indies.  After  trying  to  fool 


Effects  of  Spirit  Influence.  143 

mortals  into  the  belief  of  sucli  stuff,  the  spirit  then  coolly  informs 
us  "  that  we  must  remember  that  between  our  ignorance  and  their 
knowledge  there  is  a  vast  step."  This  is  cool,  indeed.  They 
must  show  better  reasoning  than  that  offered,  or  we  will  feel 
bound  to  transpose  the  sentence.  But  I  am  asked :  How  are  we 
to  account  for  these  appearances  if  they  are  false  and  unreal  ?  I 
have  not  so  pronounced  them.  This  has  been  already  answered  in 
part.  I  entertain  no  doubt  but  that  spirits  do  appear  and  converse 
with  mortals  ;  but  in  all  such  cases  the  change  is  in  the  mortal, 
not  in  the  appearing  spirit.  Such  mortals  are  conditioned  by  in- 
terpenetrating spirit  influence,  so  as  to  enable  them  to  see,  hear, 
and  feel  spirits,  spiritually^  but  which,  at  the  time,  may  seem  to 
them  to  be  natural.  Perhaps  some  would  be  pleased  to  be  in- 
formed whether  I  ever  had  any  experience  in  that  line  — to  which 
I  will  simply  answer  affirmatively,  although  at  the  time  I  thought 
I  was  in  a  normal  condition  ;  but  after  it  passed  by,  my  reason 
taught  me  better.  To  admit  the  possibility  of  the  interchange  of 
spirit  and  matter  Avould  be  fatal  to  all  religion,  all  pm-e  spirituality, 
and  to  the  idea  of  the  existence  of  an  infinite,  all  pervading,  om- 
nipresent spirit,  imminent  in  all  worlds,  and  places  at  all  times. 
Hence  it  would  be  wisdom  in  all  spiritualists  of  both  orders  to 
abandon  the  idea  at  once  and  forever ;  as  every  phenomenon  per- 
taining to  it  can  be  as  satisfactorily  explained  without  its  admis- 
sion as  with  it. 


TYNDALL  CRITICISED. 


The  saying  that  the  brave  are  always  generous  may  be  fittingly 
applied  to  the  illustrious  Tyndall — brave,  fearless,  candid.  The 
excerpts  given  us  of  his  eloquent  inaugural,  delivered  before  the 
British  Association  at  Belfast,  Ireland,  are  like  meteor  flashes 
from  among  the  stars — a  grand  pyrotechnic  of  richly- worded,  well- 
weighed,  and  nicely-rounded  phrases.  It  is  the  fii'st  time  in  the 
world's  history  that  an  association  of  that  magnitude  and 
materialistic  tendency  could  dare  to  stand  up  in  ojyen  day  and 
holdl/y  ask  the  religions  of  the  imrld  to  "  stand  from  under "' — 
get  out  of  its  way — so  bold  and  daring,  that  religion's  arm  seems 
palsied,  and  her  votaries  stand  aghast,  terror  stricken. 

I  do  not  accuse  all  the  members  of  that  body  of  being 
materialists ;  but  the  general  tendency  seems  to  be  in  that  direc- 
tion, as  I  think,  can  be  shown  from  the  address  of  their  President. 
Enough  is  given  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  thoughtful,  and  to 
show  the  materialistic,  not  to  say  the  baneful,  tendency  of  that 
learned  body  of  aggressives. 

Attached  to  this  Association  are  some  of  the  strongest,  ablest, 
clearest-headed  and  far-searching  minds  of  Europe,  if  not  of  the 
world  ;  and  any  thing  done  by  it  cannot  fail  to  make  its  impression 
on  the  world  of  mind,  and  must  have  its  effect  for  weal  or  woe  for 
generations  to  come.  But  no  man  nor  party  should  become  so 
popular  and  powerful  that  their  acts  and  sayings  should  go 
unquestioned.  It  seems  that  the  Professor  not  only  strove  to 
steer  clear  of  every  thing  spiritual,  lest  he  might  fall  into  dream- 
land and  find  nothing  real,  but  proceeded  to  span  the  universe 
with  a  bridge  of  solid  matter,  and  then  walk  majestically  over  it ; 
thence  plunge  out  into  a  world  of  atoms  and  "  polar  molecules," 
and  o-o  back  on  the  atoms  until  the  atoms  should  ^\yq  out,  while 
he  finds  nothing  beyond  !  Unlike  a  contemporary  of  his,  who, 
at  the  point  where  the  atoms  were  lost,  discovered  God,  mind, 
and  law,  above  nature  itself ;  but  the  Professor  turns  upon  his 
heel  and  proclaims  that  in  matter  "  the  power  of  every  for'in  and 


Scientific  Investigation.  145 

equality  of  life  is  founds  His  first  step  hi  this  direction  is  to 
exchide  the  "  crude  beliefs  in  the  power  of  supernatural  beings," 
then  speak  concessively  of  the  Empedocles  theory  of  the  exist^ice 
of  love  and  hate  among  the  atoms,  and  of  the  hypothesis  that 
animals  are  automatic,  thus  excluding  even  instinct,  and  making 
them  mere  walking  machines  in  the  great  arcana  of  things 
natural,  contravening  Pope  and  many  other  able  writers  who  : 

"  Place  reason  over  instinct  as  best  you  can, 
In  this  'tis  God  directs,  in  that  'tis  man.'' 

Tyndall  further  says :  "  Scientific  searchers,  freed  and  released 
from  the  caprice  of  super-sens  tial  beings,  sought  to  place  absolute 
reliance  on  law  and  nature."  How  nature  came  by  law  remains 
a  trifle  beclouded  ;  but  this,  he  informs  us,  is  the  "  beginning  of 
scientific  investigation — -the  first  break  from  the  supernatural  to  a 
reliance  on  the  facts  of  nature."  And  finally,  like  the  honest, 
brave  and  daring  man  that  he  is,  he  comes  squarely  to  the  work 
and  says  :  '•'  Abandoning  all  disguise,  the  confession  I  feel  bound 
to  make  before  you  is,  that  I  prolong  the  vision  backward  across 
the  boundary  of  experimental  evidence,  and  discern  in  that  matter 
(which  we  in  our  ignorance,  and  notwithstanding  our  professed 
reverence,  for  its  Creator),  have  hitherto  covered  with  opprobrium 
— the  promise  and  potency  of  every  form  and  equality  of  life." 
This  seems  to  have  been  spoken  with  some  hesitancy.  A  shade 
of  gossamer  covers  its  face ;  but,  when  laid  bare,  it  becomes 
alarming— all  sweeping.  Tlie  opijrobrium  once  removed,  matter 
becomes  an  object  of  reverence,  in  whidi  is  found  the  power  of 
every  form  of  life — psychical,  spiritual,  instinctive,  and  physical ! 
Ah !  what  a  mistake  hast  thou  made,  thou  Christ !  Ah,  Paul, 
what  a  blunder  !  It  is  no  more  "  in  God  we  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being,"  but  in  matter.  The  Professor  verifies  my  con- 
struction by  adding  :  "  The  hmnaii  understanding  itself  is  the 
result  of  the  play  between  organism  and  environment,,  through 
cosmical  ranges  of  time." 

Beautifully  spoken  ;  but  where  is  the  proof  ?  What  kind  of 
play  ?  AVhat  is  this  but  saying  that  the  faculty  within  us  that 
knows,  that  embodies  our  knowledge — the  thinking,  reflecting 
ego — is  originated  and  brought  into  being  by  the  play  between 
our  physical  organism,  and  the  matter  which  surrounds  it  ?  He 
cannot  mean  any  thing  more  subtile  than  matter,  for  this  might 
be  inside  as  well  as  playing  around ;  if  so,  it  would  be  God  Him- 
self. 

19 


146  Ttndall  Criticised. 

I.  The  power  of  the  life  of  the  plijsical  being  he  finds  in  mat- 
ter. 

II.  The  knowing  faculty  is  brought  into  being  by  a  play  between 
the  matter,  created  being  and  surrounding  matter ;  but  how  the 
play  is  gotten  up,  we  are  left  to  conjecture.  One  essential  is 
sadly  wanting,  and  that  is,  j^^oof.  Feuerbach  nor  Comte  can  go 
farther  than  this.  The  former  gives  an  apparently  plausible  the- 
sis, how  the  soul,  if  there  is  any,  dies  with  the  body,  forgetting 
that  a  machine  can  wear  out  and  be  unable  to  move,  while  the 
power  that  was  wont  to  move  it  may  still  exist.  The  latter  has 
based  his  positive  philosophy  on  propositions  which  themselves 
demand  proof,  declaring  nothing  to  be  real  that  is  not  cognizable 
to  one  or  more  of  the  five  senses;  when,  were  I  asked  to  point 
out  definitely  the  meaning  of  the  word  unreal,  I  could  not  do  it 
much  more  truly  than  to  say  material  existences,  as  any  of  these 
can  be  made  uncognizable  to  the  five  senses.  It  were  more  rea- 
sonable to  conclude  that  the  solids  underlie  these  ever-changing, 
shifting,  vanishing  existences,  that  seem  to  exist  to-day  and  to- 
morrow are  not,  than  the  contrary.  Locke's  reasoning  here  is  to 
the  point :  "  Matter  is  not  one  individual  thing ;  neither  is  there 
any  such  thing  as  one  material  being ;  but  an  infinite  number  of 
eternal  cogitative  beings,  independent  of  one  another,  of  limited 
force  and  distinct  tli oughts,  which  could  never  produce  that  order, 
harmony  and  beauty  Avhicli  are  to  be  found  in  nature.  Since, 
therefore,  whatsoever  is  the  first  eternal  being  must  be  cogitative, 
and  whosoever  is  first  in  all  things  must  necessarily  contain  in  it, 
and  actually  have,  at  least,  all  the  perfections  that  can  ever  after 
exist,  nor  can  it  give  to  another  any  perfection  it  hath  not  actually 
in  itself,  or  at  least  in  a  higher  degree — -it  necessarily  follows  that 
the  first  eternal  being  cannot  be  matter.  Unthinking  particles 
of  matter,  however  put  together,  can  have  nothing  thereby  added 
to  them  but  a  new  relation  of  position,  which  it  is  impossible 
should  give  thought  and  knowledge  to  them." 

It  is  not  at  all  strange  that  religion  comes  in  for  a  castigation 
at  the  hands  of  physical  science,  because  she  forsook  her  high 
domain  and  obtruded  herself  on  forbidden  ground  into  the  sciences 
of  natural  things.  Science .  soon  ^^roved  her  to  be  in  error,  and, 
having  done  so,  led  her  to  doubt  the  whole.  Christ,  our  exemplar 
and  founder  of  the  true  religion,  did  not  so.  He  left  ph^'sics  to 
fight  physics,  and  betook  himself  to  the  realm  spiritual  and  there 
remained  —  where  all  his  true  followers  do  to  this  day.     Religion 


Religion's  Spheee.  147 

must  remain  in  the  realm  of  spirit ;  but  if  she  descends  there- 
from to  the  physical,  as  the  Professor  says,  she  must  submit. 
Having  made  this  blunder,  and  substituted  in  its  stead,  "  School 
Philosophy  and  Verbal  Wastes,"  she  is  fast  becoming  the 
laughing-stock  of  the  world  ;  for  we  now  find  more  than  a  thou- 
sand creeds  and  forms,  all  at  variance,  while  no  two  truths  can  by 
any  possibility  disagree.  It  is,  therefore,  impossible  that  there  be 
more  than  one  right  way.  When  the  right  way  is  found  —  and 
it  can  be  found  —  it  will  not  consist  of  ceremony  and  mystic  be- 
lief, but  one  whose  adherents  live  in  their  daily  walk  and  conver- 
sation the  holy  life  of  Christ  their  exemplar. 

"  His  can't  be  wrong  whose  life  is  in  tlie  right." 

It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  "  spiritual  longings  did  put  a  check 
on  2)hysical  science  for  two  thousand  years  ;  which  longings  the 
Christian  religion  and  the  Scrij»tures  in  part  satisfied."  The 
simple  reason  for  this  was,  because  neither  matter  nor  physical 
science  contains  the  elements  to  satisfy  the  soul's  demands,  but 
having  committed  the  error  before  mentioned,  it  lost  the  spirit 
and  substituted  the  "school  philosophy."  The  world  became 
word-weary^  and  thus  gave  physical  science  the  opportunity  to 
claim  the  upper  seat.  But  the  liberal  and  truthful  Spencer  says, 
after  all,  "  there  is  a  measure  of  truth  underlying  all  creeds  and 
systems  of  religion,"  These  truths  it  becomes  science  not  to  ig- 
nore. 

The  Professor  next  turns  to  Darwin,  and  out-Darwin's  Dar- 
win himself.  But  why  should  this  savant  speak  all  the  while  of 
physical  science  as  though  there  were  no  other?  Peligion  ha*s  its 
science  as  well  as  physics.  To  ask  religion  to  step  out  of  the  way 
of  science  is  like  asking  science  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  science. 
There  can  be  no  confiict  between  the  truths  of  each.  As  far  as 
I  am  able  to  go  back  "  across  the  boundary  of  the  experimental 
evidence,"  the  science  of  religion  has  the  honor  of  the  first  record. 
AYitness  the  metaphorical  language  used  in  stating  the  correspond- 
ing condition  of  the  first  pair  of  our  species  —  not  the  first  of  the 
race,  but  the  first  pair  —  the  first  that  were  paired  off  from  pro- 
miscuous Adam  to  lead  a  higher  life  and  restrain  their  passions. 
This  shows  that  here  spiritual  science  had  its  beginning ;  and,  most 
of  the  time  since,  the  spiritual  longings  of  the  race  have  kept  re- 
ligion of  some  sort  "  in  the  van." 


148  Tyndall  Criticised. 

Inasraucli  as  mind  is  greater  than  matter,  and  cannot  be  fully 
satisfied  witli  material  things,  the  whole  world  will  reverse  the 
command  of  the  Professor,  and  saj  to  physical  science :  "  Keep 
your  place.  As  long  as  souls  aspire  God  ward,  the  purely  material 
must  get  out  of  the  way."  The  Professor  has  undertaken  too 
much,  and  already  seems  to  tremble  under  the  load.  History 
shrws  that  all  material  triumphs  have  been  of  short  duration ;  but 

.ould  materialism  now  triumph  under  its  brave  and  gallant 
jfeader,  it  cannot  be  long  before  it  will  be  found  inadequate  to  the 
wants  and  longings  of  the  soul,  when  an  enthusiastic  rising  will 
occur,  and  again  scatter  it  in  fragments  to  the  four -winds  of 
heaven.  At  length  he  admits  the  grand  question  of  the  hour  is 
to  satisfy  the  internal,  emotional,  soul-feeling  of  mankind.  This, 
the  highest  physical  science  can  never  do.  The  panacea  for  the 
soul's  ills  is  only  to  be  found  in  the  plane  above  —  the  spiritual. 

The  Professor  gives  the  impregnable  position  of  science  thus  : 
"  All  religious  theories  which  embrace  notions  of  cosmogeny,  or 
reach  into  its  domain,  must  in  so  far  submit  to  science."  This  is 
true.  But  as  far  as  the  cosmogeny  of  the  universe  is  concerned 
— the  creation  of  matter  and  generation  of  worlds — all  science 
may  as  well  keep  quiet.  As  far  as  we  are  able  to  see,  it  is  as 
impossible  for  God  to  create  something  of  nothing  as  it  is  for 
man  to  do  so  ;  and  as  far  as  we  can  see,  matter  is  as  indestructible 
as  mind  ;  and  as  to  our  real  knowledge  of  the  former  it  is  quite  as 
limited  as  of  the  latter.  The  term  creation  is  used  as  correctly 
when  meaning  change,  mold,  form,  etc.,  as  to  create  something 
out  of  nothing.  The  former  is,  I  think,  the  Bible  signification 
and  use.  Physical  science  has  proven  to  a  demonstration  the 
existence  of  man  on  this  planet  thousands  of  years  prior  to  the 
creation  of  the  Adam  and  Eve  of  Genesis  ;  but  still,  if  the  meta- 
phor is  understood,  the  Bible  and  science  do  not  conflict.  The 
term  Adam,  like  our  word  man,  means  both  a  man  and  mankind. 
And  "  God  formed  Adam  of  the  dust  of  the  ground."  What 
ground  ?  The  ground  that  the  race  then  stood  on  was  animal 
ground — animal  promiscuity  and  generation.  From  the  dust  of 
this  ground,  Adam,  or  an  Adamite  was  taken,  and  raised  to  a 
higher  plane — made  a  man  of  instead  of  animal — and  while  Adam 
— Adamkind — slept,  a  rib,  binder  or  woman,  was  taken  and  made 
a  new  woman  for  a  helpmeet  for  Adam,  to  govern  and  restrain 
the  animal  and  lead  a  new  life.  They  were  inspired  by  the 
Creator,  or  changer,  and  breathed  in  the  breath  of  (the  new)  life. 


Adam's  Fall  —  Christ's  RESUBRECTiOiSr.  149 

Thus  thej  were  the  first  created,  doing  no  violence  to  scientific 
truth.  But  they  failed  to  keep  their  high  estate,  fell  victims  to 
their  passions,  lost  their  rectitude,  and  on  that  day  died  to  the 
spiritual  life  into  which  they  had  been  elevated  ;  and  this  was  the 
fall  of  man. 

Why,  the  very  resurrection  that  Christ  spake  of  was  to  rise 
above  and  relieve  ourselves  from  the  preponderating  influence  of 
matter,  or  material  things,  and  the  lawless  sensualities  of  the 
generative  life  ;  and  the  soul  that  is  bound  by  them  has  never 
tasted  true  liberty,  and  knows  not  what  it  is  to  be  free. 

The  Professor  condemns  Buckle,  who  sought  to  detach  intel- 
lectual achievement  from  moral  force  ;  and  says  he  gravely  erred. 
But  may  he  not  be  in  error  here  ?  As  I  understand  it,  intellect- 
ual and  moral  force  are  distinct.  There  can  be  great  intellectual 
achievements  void  of  morality,  and  vice  versa.  God,  in  the 
infinite  sense,  is  not  an  intellectual  being.  Intellect  implies  the 
necessity  to  think  and  reason,  in  order  to  understand  and  reach 
conclusions.     God  is  not  under  this  necessity. 

At  last,  and  finally,  the  Professor  (we  give  him  thanks)  con- 
descends to  meet  us  halfway  and  says:  "I  would  set  forth 
equally  the  inexorable  advance  of  man's  understanding  and  the 
unquenchable  claims  of  his  emotional  (why  not  say  spiritual  ? ) 
nature.  Then,  if  freed  from  intolerance  and  bigotry,  in  opposi- 
tion to  all  the  restrictions  of  materialism,  I  would  affirm  this  to 
be  a  field  of  the  noblest  exercise  of  what  may  be  called  the 
creative  faculties  of  man."  Yei'ily,  John  Tyndall,  "  thou  art  not 
far  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

But  here  our  honest-hearted  and  brave  friend  finds  himself  in 
water  too  deep  for  the  length  of  his  line,  and  excites  our  sym- 
pathy, for  really  his  knowledge  of  matter  is  nearly  as  limited  as 
that  of  mind.  The  former  he  puts  into  his  crucible,  and  tries 
matter  with  matter  ;  he  forces  it  to  change  position  and  relation ; 
gives  names  to  the  parts;  gases  escape,  cinders  remain,  are  ex- 
amined and  thrown  away  in  despair,  not  knowing  its  generation 
and  what  it  really  is  ;  and  were  he  not  a  philosopher  his  very 
ignorance  would  run  him  mad.  Whilst  the  ego  continues  to 
reassert  itself  in  every  thought — demands  and  compels  recogni- 
tion— complains  of  the  material  bondage  to  which  we  willfully 
subject  it — we  plod  along,  ignorantly  mistaking  the  shadow  for 
the  substance,  until  in  God's  crucible  the  spirit  is  relieved,  and 


150  Tyndall  Criticised. 

called  to  "  give  an  account  of  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  whether 
they  be  good  or  whether  they  be  evil."  Then  if  the  spirit  finds 
itself  not  in  harmony  with  the  power  that  caused  it  to  exist,  this 
will  be  its  hell.  ISTow,  whether  spirit  or  matter  should  most 
engross  our  attention,  every  reader  for  himself  or  herself  must 
judge. 


CEITICISM   UPON   DR.    MCCOSH. 

"  THE  POWER  BEHIND  NATURE." 


The  great  mistake  in  the  oft-repeated  assertion  that  "  religion 
has  been  the  cause  of  more  bloodshed  and  misery  to  the  hiunan 
race  than  all  other  causes  combined  "  consists  in  the  misapplica- 
tion of  the  term.  Religion,  per  se,  is  non-resistant,  with  which 
false  relio^ion  antao-onizes,  as  falsehood  does  with  truth.  Here  is 
where  the  misery  comes  in  ;  and  no  religion  can  be  called  true 
which  forms  a  connecting  link  and  affiliates  with  the  passional 
nature  of  man,  instead  of  governing  and  controlling  it.  Men 
not  being  equally  unfolded,  see  not  alike,  and  from  misconcep- 
tions on  the  part  of  either  come  the  clash  of  arms.  The  first 
recorded  instance,  baptized  in  blood,  was  between  a  shepherd  and 
ground-tiller  —  one  supposing  that  God  preferred  mutton  chops 
to  garden  sauce  —  and  ever  since  that  eventful  period,  misconcep- 
tions about  the  mind  of  God,  equally  futile,  have  arisen  among 
men,  dividing  them  into  factions,  causing  angry  words  and  bitter 
strifes,  not  unf  requently  ending  in  bloodshed,  even  up  to  the  pres- 
ent hour.  Among  all  controversialists,  the  religiously  creed- 
bound  seem  the  least  able  to  lay  themselves  open  to  receive  plain, 
unvarnislied  truth.  I  say  this,  although  a  religionist  myself,  and 
am  led  to  make  the  assertion  at  this  time  by  noticing  the  annual 
address  of  Dr.  McCosh  to  the  senior  class  of  college  students  at 
Trenton,  ]^.  J.,  in  which  he  took  occasion  to  contravene  the  doc- 
trines enunciated  by  Prof.  Tyndall,  President  of  the  British 
Association  of  Belfast,  Ireland,  whose  discourse  I  have  endeav- 
ored to   lay  on  the  executioner's  block. 

The  Doctor  begins  by  a  kind  of  counter-trenching  in  a  "hide 
and  seek  "  manner,  and  manoeuvers  like  a  certain  general,  whose 
forces,  inferior  to  those  of  his  adversary  —  were  kept  marching 
and  countermarching,  revealing  and  concealing  themselves,  until 
the  enemy  would  so  over-estimate  his  forces  as  to  yield  without 
resistance.  His  forces  must  have  appeared  great  to  the  class,  as 
the  feat  was  pronounced  "  masterly.''     It  was  in  bad  taste,  if  notli- 


152  The  Power  behind  ]!^atube. 

ing  more,  for  the  Doctor  to  underrate  his  antagonist,  and  attach 
ignorance  to  one  of  the  most  learned  and  highly  gifted  men  of 
the  age,  as  Tyndall  surely  is.  We  all  live  in  glass  houses,  and 
should  be  careful  how  we  throw  stones.  "  The  man,"  says  Locke, 
"  who  undertakes  to  reason  must  not  be  in  love  with  any  opinion, 
nor  wish  it  to  be  true,  until  he  knows  it  to  be  so.  Keep  a  perfect 
indifference  to  all  ojDinions  and  not  wish  any  of  them  to  be  true, 
lest  the  wish  make  them  appear  so."  This  advice  could  not  have 
been  kept  in  view  by  Dr.  McCosh,  as  it  is  evident  he  "  had  an  ax 
to  grind,"  which  proved  to  be  the  defense  of  a  personal  Deity ; 
and  this  it  was  that  caused  him  to  deviate  from  the  line  of  fair, 
outspoken  reason,  which  shines  so  conspicuously  in  his  rival. 

It  is  a  question  which  of  the  two  discourses,  if  received  entirely 
for  truth,  would  be  the  most  baneful  to  society.  The  Doctor,  while 
accusing  Tyndall  of  deception  and  ingenious  disguises,  is  like  the 
man  who  dug  a  pit  for  his  neighbor  and  fell  into  it  himself. 
i!Tevertheless,  his  accusation  seems  to  be,  in  part,  justifiable,  as 
Tyndall  has  named  philosophers  who  yield  him  at  best  but  a 
meagre  support.  Tyndall  makes  Bruno  a  prominent  figure,  who 
uttered  the  following :  "  The  highest  contemplation  which  trans- 
cends nature  is  impossible  and  null  to  him  who  is  without  belief ; 
for  we  obtain  this  b}^  supernatural,  not  natural  light,  and  such 
light  they  have  not  who  hold  all  things  to  be  corporeal." 

But  I  cannot  see  that  he  attempted  to  "  make  us  believe  that 
all  agreed  with  him  ;  while  the  Doctor  begins  six  hundred  years 
before  Christ  (might  have  begun  one  thousand  years)  excluding 
only  the  Brahmins,  accepts  the  Buddhists  and  appropriates  to  him- 
self all  the  philosophers  of  the  last  twenty-five  thousand  years  ; 
while,  outside  of  creeddom,  none  yield  him  a  cordial,  and  I  might 
say  even  a  meagre  support.  This  was  a  great  mistake  in  the  Doctor, 
if  mistake  it  was,  for  most  assuredly,  of  this  class,  Tyndall's 
forces  greatly  outnumbered  his,  but  neither  of  them  has  a  right 
to  the  claim  set  up. 

The  Doctor  speaks  truly  when  he  says  :  "  All  the  leading  phil- 
osophers persisted  in  claiming  the  existence  of  some  intelligent, 
designing  cause  back  of  nature."  The  Brahmins  did  the  same ;  but 
none,  except  the  religiously  creed-bound,  agree  with  the  Doctor 
in  calling  \l  jpersonal.  The  man  who  insists  on  n. personal  infinite 
Being  should  never  appeal  to  science  nor  philosophy  to  find  sup- 
port. But  how  the  Doctor  should  exclude  the  Brahmins  and  accept 
the  Buddhists  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know.     It  is  true  the  Brahmins 


Anti- Christian  Docteines.  153 

were  the  more  sensual,  but  both  held  to  the  principal  doctrine  of 
the  Vedas  ;  the  Buddhists  differing  only  in  two  essential  points — 
that  of  abolishing  caste  and  a  privileged  priesthood,  and  that  of 
establishing  celibacy.  Both  had  their  trinity  of  Gods,  who  were 
active,  subordinate  agents,  governed  by  an  invisible  cause — or  as 
Spencer  would  say,  "  unthinkable  and  unknowable,"  from  whence 
all  things  sprung.  The  Brahmins  thus  express  it :  "  There  is 
one  living  and  true  God,  everlasting,  without  parts  or  passions, 
of  infinite  power,  wisdom  and  goodness  ;  the  Maker  and  preserver 
of  all  things,  incomprehensible,  illuminates  all,  overspreads  all 
creatures — spirit  without  form,  self-existent,  pure,  perfect,  omnis- 
cient, and  omnipresent."  This  is  also  Buddhist  doctrine ;  and 
with  all  their  follies,  vagaries,  and  apparently  senseless  cere- 
monies, they  were  more  consistent  in  their  belief  than  the  pro- 
fessors of  the  religions  of  to-day  generally  are,  who  claim  God  to 
be  three  distinct  persons,  with  distinct  offices,  who,  whilst  acting 
separately,  are  finite,  but  taken  collectively  are  infinite — thus  out- 
raging philosophy,  which  they  claim  for  support,  and  the  Pytha- 
gorean science  of  numbers — absolute  truth  and  common  sense — 
all  to  support  a  man-made  creed  !  And  they,  like  the  Buddhists, 
believe  in  the  efficacy  of  sprinkling  babies  and  baptizing  in  water 
to  wash  away  sin,  whilst  it  only  reaches  the  surface,  and  at  best, 
was  but  a  type  of  that  Christ  baptism  of  Spiritual  fire  that  reaches 
the  heart.  We  are  next  referred  to  Confucius,  who  taught,  "  one 
invisible  being,  first  cause,  original  principle,"  and  then  to 
Zoroaster,  who  believed  in  "  one  supreme  essence,  invisible,  in- 
comprehensible." We  are  then  taken  to  Greece,  where  the  Doctor 
can  find  no  support,  only  a  stray  shot  here  and  there.  Orpheus, 
an  early  teacher,  held  that  "  One  invisible  God,  unknown,  prior 
to  all  beings,  contained  within  himself  the  germ  of  all  things." 
Thales  the  same ;  and  Pythagoras,  to  whom  we  are  especially 
cited,  taught  the  very  reverse  of  a  personal,  infinite  God.  He 
says  :  "  There  is  one  universal  soul  diffused  through  all  things, 
eternal,  invisible,  unchangeable,  etc.;"  and  the  Sicilian  Empedo- 
cles  was  his  pupil  and  follower.  Anaxagoras  was  supposed  to  be 
the  first  Greek  who  separated  mind  from  matter ;  those  before 
him,  that  combined  them  in  unity,  support  Tyndall.  But  this 
separation  cannot  reasonably  be  construed  into  a  personal  deity. 
Socrates  and  Plato  both  taught  the  "  unchangeability  and  omni- 
presence of  Deit}^,  without  beginning  or  ending."  Aristotle  the 
same — "God  a  spiritual  substance,  without  extension,  succession 
20 


154:  The  Power  behind  ]^atuke. 

or  division  of  parts."  On  and  on  we  may  go,  turning  in  vain 
the  leaves  of  history  to  find  support  for  a  personal,  infinite  exist- 
ence. The  Stoics,  founded  by  Zeno,  Spencer  says,  "  reduced 
philosophy  to  little  else  than  the  right  way  of  living."  Sensible 
Stoics.  To  the  Germans  we  look  in  vain.  The  Celts  and 
Teutons  "  believed  in  the  existence  of  one  Supreme  Being,  by 
whom  the  whole  universe  was  animated,  a  portion  of  whom  re- 
sided in  all  things." 

And  the  Romans  adopted  the  religious  doctrines  and  customs 
of  Greece  Avith  but  little  modification ;  while  the  same  may  be 
said  of  modern  as  of  ancient  philosophers,  and  I  see  no  justifica- 
tion in  the  Doctor  laying  claim  to  them.  It  is  clearly  evident  that 
he  is  guilty  of  the  crime  with  which  he  accused  Tyndall ;  that  is,  of 
appropriating  to  himself  that  to  which  he  had  no  right.  He  in- 
tended his  class  and  the  world  to  believe  that  all  the  great  philoso- 
phers of  the  last  twenty-five  thousand  years  supported  his  idea  of 
a  personal,  infinite  first  cause.  He  introduces  early  into  his  dis- 
course, that  what  the  "Buddhists,  Confucius  and  Greek  philoso- 
phers tanght  had  the  tendency  to  secure  a  steady  progress  np  to 
that  one  controlling,  intelligent,  personal  first  cause."  The  Doctor 
seems  to  favor  the  doctrine  of  "  evolution,"  and  supposes  that  it 
can  be  reconciled  with  scripture,  while  Tyndall  proposes  to  aban- 
don the  one  or  the  other  —  the  creative  or  the  evolution  theory. 
The  Doctor's  implication  of  evolution,  as  something  to  be  "  evolved 
from,"  seems  to  be  overstrained  ;  for,  wherever  admitted,  it  spoils 
the  creative.  The  flower  unrolls  its  own  leaves  and  unfolds  its 
petals.  The  animal  evolved  from  the  egg  was  itself  the  egg. 
The  power  behind  it  causing  the  evolution  is  Spencer's  Un- 
knowable, which  Tyndall  himself  acknowledges  to  be  God  in  the 
following  significant  words  :  "  In  fact,  the  whole  process  of  evo- 
lution is  the  manifestation  of  a  power  absolutely  inscrutable  to 
the  intellect  of  man ;  as  little  in  our  day  as  in  the  days  of  Job, 
can  man  by  searching  find  this  power  out,"  And  then  adds : 
"  You  will  observe  no  very  rank  materialism  here."  Better  stick 
to  the  creative.  Doctor,  as  you  must  see  you  can  get  no  help  from 
evolution.  But  the  Doctor  himself  comes  to  Tyndall's  assistance 
when  referring  to  the  heavenly  bodies  and  crystals  seen  in  plants, 
by  saying :  "  Whatever  the  original  forms  were,  they  arrange 
themselves  according  to  definite  laws."  This  is  evolution  "  with 
a  vengeance."  The  sneer  at  Tyndall  for  thinking  the  first  form 
was  an  atom  seems  misplaced,  for  most  certainly  the  first  phe- 


Infinite  Intelligence.  155 

nomenal  form  was  an  atom  or  atoms  —  if  not,  what  was  it?  lie 
next  speaks  of  intelligence,  and  says :  "  Tyndall  refers  to  some 
illustrious  man  who  said  he  would  be  miserable  without  a  belief 
in  a  personal  intelligence  back  of  nature,"  and  adds  "  that  he 
would  like  to  know  who  this  illustrious  man  is,  since  such  belief 
is  spontaneous  in  every  reflecting  person  since  Socrates."  In  reply 
to  this,  I  would  say  that  reflecting  persons,  outside  of  religious 
circles,  who  do  believe  it  are  indeed  very  few,  and  there  is  no  wonder 
Tyndall  was  surprised  at  tinding  one.  Socrates  himself  did  not 
believe  it.  Locke,  Pope,  Mill,  Spencer  and  a  host  of  others, 
almost  without  number,  may  be  included  in  the  unbelieving  cate- 
gory. All,  I  might  say,  of  the  deepest  thinkers  the  world  has 
produced  believe  that  inflnite  intelligence,  omniscient  and  omni- 
present spirit,  force  or  energy,  pervades  all  matter  in  all  worlds 
—  "  inhabiting  eternity  "  —  "  filling  immensity  "  —  "unthinkable 
and  unknowable  "  in  his  entirety  and  wholeness.  It  is  for  more 
impossible  for  finite  man  to  comprehend  the  infinite  than  it  is  for 
a  dove  to  swallow  this  planet.  If,  with  our  present  personal  pro- 
portion, and  all  the  knowledge  we  now  possess,  we  could  increase 
to  the  size  of  this  earth,  and  our  knowledge  increase  in  the  same 
ratio,  and  on  until  we  reached  the  proportion  of  the  sun,  and  still 
on  to  that  of  Sirius,  which  is  two  thousand  times  larger  than  the 
sun  (by  which  time  we  should  be  in  possession  of  considerable 
knowledge,  as  well  as  bulk,  perhaps  nearly  as  large  as  the  Doctor's 
personal,  infinite  God,)  still  we  would  then  seem  to  be  as  far  from 
comprehending  the  Infinite  as  we  now  are,  and  would  doubtless 
feel  less  conceit  of  ever  becoming  able  to  do  so.  Yet,  notwith- 
standing our  ignorance,  we  feel  a  certitude  that  "  He  is  as  perfect 
in  a  hair  as  heart,"  and,  as  Spencer  says,  "  cannot  help  knowing 
He  exists  "  and  unfolds  in  every  thing,  however  minute.  He 
sounds  in  the  thunder,  burns  in  the  fire,  shines  in  the  sun's  rays, 
"  glistens  in  the  stars  as  well  as  in  the  baby's  eyes,"  and  blushes 
in  the  maiden's  cheek  ;  jabbers  in  the  monkey,  sings  in  the  mock- 
ing-bird, squalls  in  the  peacock,  and  flowers  in  his  tail.  This 
being  conceded,  it  logically  follows  that  he  speaks  and  acts  in 
every  mortal  when  the  passions  are  governed  and  His  attributes 
alone  prevail.  But,  having  delegated  to  man  freedom  of  thought 
and  action,  it  follows  that  God  does  not  prompt  his  evil  thoughts, 
words  and  deeds.  So  that,  between  the  Doctor  and  Tyndall,  their 
relations  with  Deity  (all  mere  professions  aside)  depend  entirely 
on  which   of  the  two  best  control  their  passions,  and  are  most 


156  The  Power  behind  Nature. 

moved  in  what  they  say  or  do  by  God's  attributes.  This  cannot  be 
gainsayed  by  rehgion  nor  philosophy.  The  Doctor  goes  on  to  say  : 
"  It  is  far  easier  to  prove  that  tliere  is  a  personal  God,  infinitely 
wise  and  good,  tlian  to  prove  that  insensate  atoms  are  the  source 
of  the  systematic  order  of  the  world,  as  well  as  life,  reason  and 
conscience."  This  is  exactly  wliat  we  wish  the  Doctor  to  prove  : 
First,  how  a  person  with  limited  .mind  can  have  unlimited  attrib- 
utes ;  and,  secondly,  how  a  personal  God  can  be  infinite ;  or,  in 
other  words,  how  finity  can  be  infinity  ?  This  would  be  equal  to 
proving  the  same  thing  to  be  and  not  to  be  at  the  same  time, 
which  Locke  says  is  "  impossible  with  God."  And  thirdly,  prove 
that  atoms  are  insensate.  For  the  absolute  proof  of  these  I  would 
very  willingly  traverse  this  j^lanet  from  center  to  circumference 
to  find  the  book  containing  the  arguments,  and  feel  that  I  had 
obtained  the  knowledge  cheaply  enough.  I  freely  admit  the  Doctor 
has  reasonable  grounds  for  saying  that  atoms  are  insensate ;  but 
who  can  tell  me  why  the  particles  of  matter  adhere  to  and  form 
my  finger  in  its  present  shape  ?  I^ot  a  man  on  earth  can  tell  me, 
so  very  ignorant  we  all  are ;  still  we  strut,  put  on  airs,  and  talk 
about  our  knowledge.  In  its  present  connection,  the  Doctor  will 
admit  there  is  life  and  sensation  in  the  finger  ;  but  amputate  it  — 
then,  as  far  as  Ave  know,  it  becomes  insensate ;  but  how  can  we 
prove  that  the  particles  are  not  sensate  in  a  different  relation  ? 
Whether  they  are,  or  are  not,  is  beyond  our  powers  of  demonstra- 
tion. But,  just  here,  it  were  sheerest  folly  in  religion  not  to 
submit  to  physical  science. 

Materialists  proceed  in  the  same  line  of  reasoning  (though  not 
with  the  same  ground)  to  prove  their  j)osition  that  we  do  to  prove 
the  infinity  of  space.  A  certain  portion  of  space  being  cogniza- 
ble to  us,  we  have  nothing  to  hinder  the  belief  that  it  extends 
endlessly  beyond  our  powers  of  cognition.  Just  so  it  is  with 
animal  or  atomic  life  ;  we  see  so  far  with  the  naked  eye,  and 
might  suppose  it  ended  there,  but,  by  artificial  means,  are  made 
to  know  that  we  eat,  drink  and  breathe  living  creatures,  unrecog- 
nizable to  the  senses,  every  day  of  our  lives.  It  is  not  then  so 
very  strange  that  materialists  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
life  in  matter  extends  also  to  infinity,  and  hold  that  they  have 
proved  infinite  life  in  matter  by  the  same  line  of  reasoning  that 
we  prove  infinite  space.  But  the  two  are  hardly  comparable,  as 
one  is  phenomenal  and  the  other  is  not.  That  there  is  attraction 
and  repulsion  in  atoms  cannot  well  be  disputed ;  and  beginning 


The  World's  Ideal.  167 

with  man,  but  not  ending  with  him,  and  going  down  to  animal^ 
insect  and  molecule,  we  find  the  greatest  attraction  to  be  that  of 
sex,  governed  by  the  law  of  affinity  for  the  propagation  of  its 
kind.  But  the  Doctor — we  pity  him — "  hath  not  where  to  lay  his 
head"  in  the  domain  of  logic,  philosophy  nor  sound  reason. 
Starting  with  a  contradiction,  there  is  no  possibility  of  finding  a 
spot  for  reconciliation.  The  great  thinkers  disagree  with  both  the 
Doctor  and  materialists ;  for  behind  all  matter,  whether  insensate  or 
living,  they  find  infinite  intelligent  power,  all-controlling,  inscru- 
table God,  but  not  a  personal  God,  "When  the  Doctor  speaks  of  the 
God  of  the  Bible,  he  should  use  the  plural  form  and  say,  Gods  of 
the  Bible,  as  every  careful  reader  cannot  fail  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  the  Bible  speaks  of  God  in  two  senses  —  the  infinite  and 
finite,  or  subordinate  sense.  Whenever  God  is  spoken  of  as  leav- 
ing one  place  and  going  to  another,  changing  his  mind  and  pur- 
pose, or  of  becoming  angry,  wrathful  or  passionate,  it  must  be 
understood  in  the  subordinate  sense,  as  that  of  a  godly  man  or 
angel ;  but  spoken  of  as  "  All  and  in  all,"  it  is  then  to  be  under- 
stood in  the  infinite  sense. 

]^ow,  to  sum  up  the  whole  matter,  let  us  draw  a  short  contrast 
between  the  three  classes  that  represent  the  world's  ideal  with 
three  representative  living  men — •Henry  Longueville  Mansel, 
on  the  side  of  a  personal  infinite  God ;  John  Ernest  Renan,  of 
the  imj)ersoual,  agreeing  with  J.  Stuart  Mill,  Spencer,  and 
others ;  and  Prof.  John  Tyndall ;  also  Feuerbach,  Comte,  and 
others  of  the  materialistic  faith — and  point  out  in  brief  what  we 
suppose  to  be  the  mistakes  of  each.  The  first — Mansel — a  pupil 
of  Sir  Wm.  Hamilton,  has,  in  my  view,  given  the  most  ingenious 
and  the  strongest  argument  that  has  come  to  my  knowledge,  in 
favor  of  a  personal  first  cause.  His  strongest  position  is  a  nega 
tive  argument,  and  so  strong  is  it  that  it  will  doubtless  lead  many 
astray.  He  draws  a  distinction  between  the  Absolute  and  Rela- 
tive, and  argues  that  God  must  be  either  one  or  tlie  other,  over- 
looking the  fact  that  in  a  certain  sense  He  may  be  both ;  but  the 
argument  is,  that  God  must  be  in  relation  with  the  universe  and 
man,  or  be  out  of  it.  If  in  relation,  He  cannot  be  out  of  it ;  there- 
fore, not  absolute ;  hence,  personal.  If  out  of  relation  and  ab- 
solute, He  would  then  have  no  connection  with  the  phenomena  of 
the  universe  ;  hence,  could  not  exist  as  first  cause,  and  therefore 
would  be  a  useless  Deity.  Taking  his  sense  of  the  use  of  terms,. 
his  arguments  would  seem  conclusive  ;  but  passing  under  Mill's 


158  The  Power  behind  Nature. 

critical  eye,  tliej  vanish,  as  this  critic  pronounces  it,  one  long 
"  ignoratio  Elenchi.''''  But  Mill's  mistake  is  in  calling  Mansel 
ignorant,  when,  with  the  same  creed  and  cause  to  defend.  Mill 
could  not  have  done  better  himself.  Mansel  is  a  terse  and  cogent 
reason  er;  but  his  cause  was  bad,  and  he  found  it  so  on  taking  the 
affirmative,  when  he  despondingly  relinquished  the  contest,  say- 
ing :  "  We  are  bound  to  believe  God  to  be  intinite  (that  is,  im- 
personal), but  we  must  think  of  Him  as  personal,"  (that  is  finite), 
and,  as  the  "  ihinli,  "  and  the  "  helief^  are  contraries,  his  affirma- 
tion is,  that  we  are  bound  to  believe  a  contradiction,  as  it  is  im- 
possible for  us  to  believe  a  proposition  to  be  true  and  then  think 
the  contrary  is  true.  So  we  see  to  what  absurd  conclusions  in- 
telligent minds  are  driven,  while  striving  to  support  a  false 
theory.  He  had  better  have  heeded  the  words  of  Ren  an,  who 
said  :  "  The  most  eloquent  language  that  can  be  used  on  this 
subject  is  silence."  But,  secondly,  Renan,  having  been  accused 
of  atheism,  was  forced  to  declare  his  belief  as  follows  :  "  For 
myself,  I  believe  that  true  providence  is  not  distinct  from  the 
order  so  constant,  divine,  perfectly  wise,  just  and  good  which 
reigns  in  the  universe.  Against  atheism  I  strongly  protest;  such 
(my)  doctrine  is  only  the  exclusion  of  a  capricious  God,  acting  by 
fits  and  starts,  allowing  the  clouds  generally  to  follow  their  course? 
but  making  them  deviate  when  prayed  to  do  so ;  leaving  a  lung 
to  decompose  to  a  certain  point,  but  staying  decomposition  when 
a  vow  is  made — changing  his  mind — in  a  word,  according  to  his 
views  of  interest ;  and,  should  the  saddest  consequences  result 
therefrom,  the  absolute  sincerity,  of  which  we  make  profession, 
obliges  lis  to  say  so."  Again  he  says  :  "  Men  who  really  have 
a  fruitful  sentiment  of  God  have  never  put  the  questions  in  a 
contradictory  way ;  they  have  been  neither  Deists  after  the 
manner  of  the  French  school,  nor  Pantheists.  They  have  not  lost 
themselves  in  those  subtle  questions.  They  have  powerfully  felt 
God.  They  have  lived  in  Him.  They  have  not  defined  Him. 
Jesus  occupies  an  exceptional  rank  in  this  divine  phalanx,"  These 
are  clearly  the  sentiments  of  an  honest  heart,  that  fears  not  truth. 
But  his  and  Tyndall's  mistake  is  in  ignoring  the  efficacy  of 
prayer  in  the  phenomenal  as  well  as  spiritual.  They  see  clearly 
that  there  can  be  no  retro-action  in  an  infinite  existence  ;  hence, 
they  take  it  for  granted  that  prayers  touching  phenomena  are 
useless  and  unavailing.  Hear  a  simple  anecdote  :  A  father  says 
to  his  little  four-year-old,  "  Charlie,  my  son,  it  is  bed-time  ;  go  to 


The  Efficacy  of  Prayek.  1&9 

jour  room,  but,  before  retiring,  don't  forget  to  kneel  down  and 
ask  God,  your  heavenly  Father,  to  bless  you  and  to  give  you 
whatever  you  need."  Charlie  kissed  his  pa,  and  did  as  he  was 
told ;  got  on  his  knees,  folded  his  hands,  and,  in  much  sincerity 
and  faith,  with  upturned  face,  said  aloud  :  "  O  God,  my  heavenly 
Father,  will  you  please  bless  me,  and  give  me  a  drum  ?  "  The 
father  heard  the  prayer,  and  next  morning  the  drum  was  forth- 
coming. 'Now  the  question  is :  Did  God  answer  the  prayer  ? 
I  answer  afhrmatively.  If  God's  attributes  of  goodness,  love, 
and  mercy  overcame  the  man's  cupidity,  avarice,  and  selfishness, 
and  caused  him  to  get  the  drum,  then  what  the  father  did,  God 
did ;  tlierefore  God  answered  the  child's  prayer.  What  this  class 
of  thinkers  have  overlooked  is  this  :  That  whenever  a  prayer 
reaches  the  attributes  of  Deity,  whether  in  man  or  angel,  it 
reaches  the  ear  of  God  in  a  retro-active  agent,  who,  inspired  by 
God  in  them,  is  thus  sent  to  your  relief.  Therefore,  God  conies 
to  your  relief  in  answer  to  prayer,  though  He  was  present  in  you 
and  knew  your  needs  before  your  petition  was  offered.  But  it  is 
ridiculously  childish,  unscientific  and  unphilosophical  to  suppose 
that  tlie  first  angel  that  heard  you  conveyed  it  to  a  second,  and 
he  to  a  third,  and  so  on  until  some  shining  throne  was  reached 
whereon  sat  a  personal  God,  who  there  told  the  messengers  what 
to  do ;  yet  this  is  a  fair  deduction  from  the  pei'sonal  God  theory. 
In  the  second  place,  they  have  overlooked  another  important 
fact :  Whilst  men  on  earth  chain  the  lightning  and  change  the 
course  of  nature  in  many  ways,  it  is*  not  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  spirit  existences,  moved  by  God's  attributes,  are  able  to  do 
much  more  !  even  to  changing  electric  currents  and  the  courses 
of  clouds,  as  are  stated  in  Bible  history  !  What  such  agents  do 
being  impelled  by  God's  attributes,  God  does  ;  and  to  Him  be  all 
the  glory.  And  as  "  every  knee  shall  bow  and  every  tongue  shall 
confess,"  materialists  will  not  be  an  exception ;  and  all  such,  will 
on  their  bended  knees,  yet  acknowledge  the  efficacy  of  praj^er. 
It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  answer  to  special  prayer  does  not 
conflict  with  the  unchangeability  of  Deity  ;  and  it  hence  clearly 
follows  that  every  sound  borne  upon  the  waves  of  the  atmosphere 
to  the  drum  of  mortal  ear  has  and  must  come  from  finite 
agencies,  which  alone  are  retro-active,  and  no  words  of  such 
agents,  only  such  as  his  attributes  impel,  can.  be  the  word  and  gift 
of  God.  Thirdly,  and  lastly,  the  honest  materialists,  Feuerbach, 
Comte  and  others,  are  not  without  a  plausible  argument  in  their 


160  The  Powbe  behind  ITature. 

favor.  Finding  life  in  matter  as  far  as  is  possible  to  reach,  tliey 
proceed  upon  the  hypothesis  that  all  is  phenomenal  with  life  in 
itself,  and,  with  Darwin,  conclude  that  the  greater  than  the 
atomic  is  caused  by  affinitive  attraction,  selection,  aggregation, 
and  cohesion — ^first,  mineral ;  secondly,  vegetable  ;  thirdly,  animal ; 
fourthly,  man.  IS^ow,  that  the  power  of  God's  unfolding  in 
nature  has  done  all  this  in  the  manner  by  them  set  forth,  I  con- 
fess myself  unable  with  any  certainty  to  deny ;  but  be  it  as  it 
may,  it  is  still  the  work  of  God,  by  the  creative,  or,  if  any  prefer, 
the  changing  power  of  His  attributes  in  nature,  manifesting  an 
intelligence  far  superior  to  that  of  all  finite  creatures  combined. 
But  the  i^ery  great  mistake  in  these  deep  and  honest  thinkers  con- 
sists in  their  not  lifting  the  screen  to  see  if  something  besides 
matter  does  not  exist.  They  stopped  too  soon,  were  too  easily 
satisfied — only  one  step  more  and  they  would  have  learned  that 
there  exist  attributes  and  qualities  which  are  not  phenomenal, 
and  that  the  first  atom,  whether  insensate  or  living,  was  itself,  an 
effect  which  had  its  cause ;  and  for  which  cause,  we  in  humility 
bow,  and  say  we  can  find  no  better  name  than  GOD. 


BEECHEK  DISSECTED. 


Text. — Let  nothing  he  done  through  strife  or  vain  glory  ;  hut 
in  lowliness  of  mind,  let  each  esteem  others  hetter  than  them- 
selves.— (Phil,  ii,  3.) 

When  a  great  light  flashes  upon  the  world  like  a  blazing  comet 
passing  through  the  ecliptic,  all  eyes  are  turned  toward  it  and  all 
minds  strive  to  comprehend  its  errand.  Such  was  the  case  a  few 
evenings  since,  when  it  was  announced  that  the  illustrious  pastor 
of  Plymouth  Church,  Kew  York,  was  to  appear  at  Liederkranz 
Hall,  in  Louisville,  to  enlighten  the  benighted  understandings  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Falls  City,  and  with  its  great  capacity  it 
was  not  able  to  contain  the  eager  and  pressing  multitude  that 
sought  entrance  to  the  prepared  feast.  If  the  dishes  set  before 
the  guests  are  correctly  reported,  some  of  them  must  have  been 
as  indigestible  as  the  Kevelator's  little  book — somewhat  bitter, 
though  "  in  the  mouth  sweet  as  honey." 

Our  text  at  the  head  of  this  discourse  be  declared  to  be  the 
essence  of  his  discourse,  at  the  same  time  denying  its  possible, 
permanent  existence  with  men  !  Above  all  things,  it  is  most  m- 
portant  that  such  lights  at  such  times  should  enunciate  truth  in 
clear,  unmistakable  language,  which  always  can  be  done  if  clear 
ideas  are  entertained.  Many  sound  truths  were  uttered,  enough 
to  sugar-coat  the  oiled  sophistries  and  cause  them  to  be  relished 
and  swallowed  witli  pleasure  ;  but  no  pains  seem  to  have  been 
taken  to  give  them  logical  accuracy.  My  purpose  now  is  not  so 
much  to  notice  the  truths,  but  if  possible  to  remove  the  finely 
woven  covering  which  beautifully  arranged  language  and  simili- 
tude have  spread  over  error  in  order  to  make  it  pass  for  truth. 

He  sets  out  with  a  negative  denial  of  the  Trinity  in  its  com- 
monly accepted  sense,  in  which  the  text  he  chose  seems  to  justify 
him,  and  he  asserts  truly  that  "  Christ  manifested  the  Father's 
interior  nature."  But  in  the  next  breath,  either  unwittingly  or 
otherwise,  he  seems  to  lock  arms  with  Auguste  Comte,  who  in 
his  Positive  Philosophy  makes  the  objective  all  that's  real,  and 
21 


162  Beechee  Dissected. 

every  thing  unreal  which  is  unrecognizable  by  the  five  senses. 
The  pastor  says :  "  We  can  imagine  no  other  truths  than  those 
vi^hich  belong  to  our  (five)  senses,"  which,  to  settle  his  meaning, 
he  calls  "  objective  truths."  Comte  goes  no  farther  than  this — 
he  owns  no  God  not  manifest  to  the  senses  ;  and  the  pastor 
clinches  the  doctrine,  and,  in  a  negative  manner,  seems  to  deny 
any  other  senses.  "  Can  anybody,"  he  says,  "  tell  me  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  taste  that  is  not  taste  ?  hearing  that  is  not  hear- 
ing ?  seeing  and  feeling  that  are  not  seeing  and  feeling  ? "  ]S[oWj 
nobody  can  believe  a  thing  can  be  and  not  be  at  the  same  time ; 
then  for  what  purpose  these  questions  only  to  den}'^  the  possibility 
of  two  kinds  of  senses  of  seeing,  feeling,  etc.  ?  If  not,  why  all 
this  dust  and  smoke  ?  Why  question  us  in  this  adroit  manner  if 
he  really  believed  in  any  other  than  the  five  natural  senses? 

Kow,  I  would  have  you  all  understand,  "  without  vain  glory 
and  in  lowliness  of  mind,"  that  there  are  other  senses  besides 
those  enumerated,  and  vastly  more  important,  that  we  should 
recognize.  These  are  the  spiritual,  the  real  and  subjective, 
while  the  outer  or  objective  may  be  called  the  unreal.  Take  a 
block  of  marble  :  You  see  and  feel  it ;  it  is  white  and  hard,  and 
you  pronounce  it  real.  But  bring  it  into  the  crucible ;  it  is  soon 
red,  then  incandescent,  next  a  fluid,  and  finally  disappears  from 
your  vision  or  touch.  What  is  it  now  ?  Is  it  real  ?  If  so,  what 
and  where  is  it  ?  Xo  mortal  can  answer  the  question.  It  was 
and  is  not  marble.  Just  so  vanishes  in  the  crucible  of  truth  the 
affirmation  that  God  is  only  known  objectively,  and  all  truths  the 
same.  God  was  in  the  marble  as  well  as  our  minds,  but  where  is 
the  marble  ?  Our  minds,  being  indestructible,  are  real,  though 
subjective,  and  God  is  still  there.  Now,  to  my  understanding, 
which  God  in  His  mercy  has  enlightened,  subjective  truths  are 
by  far  the  most  real  and  imperishable,  while  nothing  can  be  more 
true  than  that  the  objective  or  external  senses,  like  the  marble,  all 
vanish  in  time's  grand  retort,  the  spiritual  and  subjective  senses 
which  are  eternal,  alone  remaining. 

When  we  make  use  of  the  concept  man,  we  usually  include  the 
ego  and  non  ego — the  subjective  and  objective — and  what  better 
definition  can  be  given  to  the  terms  than  internal  and  external  f 
The  former  "  refers  to  the  thinking  subject,  the  latter  to  the  ob- 
ject thought  of."  But  it  may,  with  some  plausibility,  be  affirmed 
that  when  the  mind  contemplates  itself  it  is  then  both  subject 
and  object.     This  being  admitted,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  can 


Infinite  Spirit.  163 

be  made  tlie  non  ego.  It  is  simplj  the  ego  contemplating  the  ego. 
Neither  can  God  in  the  mind  be  made  the  non  ego.  I  admit  the 
God,  whom  the  pastor  describes  as  of  our  own  making,  to  be 
objective,  and  whom  the  simplest  heathen,  as  well  as  he,  ''  can 
see  in  clouds  and  hear  Him  in  the  wind."  He  may,  if  he  choose, 
term  all  external  nature  the  objectivity  of  the  divine.  It  is  what 
Moses  saw  in  nature  on  the  "  clefts  of  the  rocks,"  and  for  want  of 
a  better  phrase,  termed  the  "  hinder  parts  of  God  ? "  This  is 
what  Comte,  Beecher  and  others  call  the  true  God,  as  all  such 
do,  who  affirm  that  He  can  onl}^  be  known  objectively,  when  the 
best  that  could  be  said  is,  that  it  is  simply  the  shadow  of  God. 
Spencer,  Tyndall,  Baring,  Gould,  Huxley  and  others  know  better. 
They  go  behind  nature  and  find  an  "  incomprehensible  potency," 
which  is  termed  "  persistent  force,"  "  Divine  energy,"  "  Divine 
essence,"  "  inscrutable  Providence,"  an  "  evoluting  power,  etc." 
Though  claiming  little  spirituality,  this  stands  true,  and  in  con- 
tradistinction to  the  objective  doctrine,  and  is  simply  what  we 
call  Infinite  Sjpirit — God — in  a  sense  which  cannot  be  applied  to 
any  finite  being  or  tutelary  deity.  This  infinite,  omnipresent 
Spirit,  enthroned  in  the  mind — whose  "  kingdom  is  within  you  " 
— there  makes  Himself  known  in  spite  of  every  effort  at  unbelief, 
and  this  subjective  knowledge  is  far  in  advance  of  all  that  ex- 
ternals can  possibly  impart.  Here  is  where  the  true  knowledge 
of  God  is  obtained  ;  and  the  possession  of  this  knowledge  has  no 
tendency  to  raise  one  above  another  and  cause  them  to  do  any 
thing  through  "  vain  glory,"  but  on  the  contrary  it  shows  us  our 
defects  and  assists  us  to  "  lowhness  of  mind,  and  to  esteem  others 
better  than  ourselves."  Obedience  to  the  operation  of  this  spirit 
in  the  higher  consciousness  of  our  unfolding  is  the  resurrection — 
the  daily  rising  into  newness  of  life  and  a  more  sensible  relation, 
connection  and  union  with  God — more  and  more  elevating  the 
soul  above  and  weaning  it  from  earthly  things,  until  the  Christ 
jDlane  is  reached.  Him  received  and  obeyed,  and  full  and  complete 
redemption  obtained. 

With  these  plain  truths  before  us,  which  must  come  within  the 
range  and  experience  of  every  thoughtful  mind,  I  leave  all  to 
imagine  my  astonishment  at  finding  the  Plymouth  pastor,  one  of 
the  greatest  lights  of  the  world,  to  be  so  far  in  the  dark  as  to 
place  all  true  knowledge  of  God  objectively,  instead  of  by  this 
internal  revealment  of  Himself  to  the  mortals.  He  must  have 
been  led  astray  "  through  strife  and  vain  glory,  instead  of  lowli- 


164  Beecher  Dissected. 

ness  of  mind."  Why,  the  wild  negroes  wandering  on  the  east 
coast  of  Africa,  between  the  Jiiba  and  Cape  Delgado,  know  as 
much  about  God  objectively  as  does  the  Plymouth  pastor.  So  all 
the  talk  about  how  we  and  they  make  God  must  pass  as  so  much 
idle  wind.  But  he  goes  on  in  the  same  strain  and  says  :  "  All 
conceptions  of  God  are  but  extensions  of  human  character  and 
exj)erience."  Is  this  the  way  Christ  obtained  His  knowledge 
of  the  Father  ?  Did  the  Divinity  "that  stirs  within"  reveal  noth- 
ing more  than  He  could  glean  from  human  character?  Is  Chris- 
tianity lowered  to  this  platform  ?  Truly,  the  wholly  "  natural 
man  discerneth  not  the  things  of  the  spirit  of  God,  for  they  are 
spiritually,  not  objectively,  discerned."  O,  nay,  Christ's  advance- 
ment came  from  His  reception  of  subjective  truths  made  known 
bv  the  Father.  As  the  Father  tauffht  Him,  so  He  taught  the 
world,  "  in  all  lowliness  of  mind."  But,  leaving  speculative 
authority,  the  pastor  finally  gets  down  to  his  work,  and  quotes : 
"  Let  nothing  be  done  through  strife  and  vain  glory,  but  in  low- 
liness of  mind  let  each  esteem  others  better  than  themselves." 
Here  he  strikes  bottom  and  stands  on  solid  ground,  and  adds : 
"  This  is  harder  to  accept  and  practice  than  any  theology  ever  put 
on  paper."  Most  true,  "noble  Festus,"  still,  it  is  the  Christian 
ground,  and  such  as  cannot  stand  on  it  should  not  call  themselves 
Christians,  in  the  full  import  of  that  term.  It  is  the  very  thing 
which  is  put  into  the  practice  of  the  daily  life  of  the  consecrated 
Shaker. 

But  hear  his  further  testimony  :  "  This  is  very  well  in  meeting- 
time,  but  when  you  go  home  there  is  not  a  man  who  believes  any 
thing  in  it."  Then,  I  would  add,  there  is  not  a  Christian  among 
them.  But  what  seems  impossible  with  him  is  altogether  possible 
with  the  true  followers  of  Christ ;  but,  with  him,  I  would  con- 
fess its  impossibility  in  I*Tature's  self  and  selfishness.  He  very 
pertinently  and  correctly  ridicules  the  idea,  by  some  entertained, 
that  the  Infinite  is  some  "  magnificent  being  enthroned  in  the 
center  of  the  universe,  sitting  there  in  crystalline  splendor,  with 
universes  swinging  around  Him  and  His  majesty  demanding  their 
homage  and  worship."  He  that  "  fills  immensity"  cannot  have 
center  nor  circumference.  If  such  throne  exists,  it  must  pertain 
to  subordinate,  finite  creatures,  with  Christ  for  Supreme  Judge. 
That  the  onmipresent  Spirit  is  ever  in  the  minds  of  all  free 
ao^ents  is  a  truism  to  which  the  whole  world  can  bear  witness. 
But  after  the  foregoing  truths,  what  must  we  think  of  the  sue- 


The  Mothekiiood  in  God.  166 

ceeding  declaration  ?  "  God  is  not  centripetal,  but  centrifugal, 
sending:  all  tliino:s  out  from  Himself."  This  seems  to  neutralize 
what  he  has  just  told  us  —  it  implies  limit  and  admits  the  throne 
denied  Him.  To  send  things  out  from  one's  self  implies  that 
they  go  where  He  is  not,  and  thus  Omnipotence  is  denied.  (!) 
The  simple  truth  is,  we  are  made  to  feel  our  nearness  to  or  dis- 
tance from  God  just  in  proportion  to  our  obedience  or  disobedi- 
ence, with  no  reference  whatever  to  latitude  nor  altitude.  Hence, 
the  apostle  says :  "  Submit  yourself  to  God,  draw  nigh  unto 
Him,  and  He  will  draw  nigh  unto  you ;  "  "  humble  yourself  and 
He  will  lift  you  up."     James  iv,    8,  10. 

Next,  the  pastor  comes  to  the  motherhood  in  God  and  asks : 
"How  Christ  came  to  tell  us  of  the  motherhood  in  God?  "  He 
did  not  do  it.  The  time  had  not  come  for  the  motherhood  to  be 
declared ;  this  was  not  for  the  bridegroom,  but  for  the  bride  to 
declare.  In  the  first  appearing  it  was  the  Lamb,  the  bridegroom, 
masculine,  who  manifested  the  Fatherhood  in  God.  The  pseans 
were  then  the  Father !  the'  Father  !  The  love  of  the  Father ! 
"  What  kind  of  love  the  Father  hath  ?  "  In  the  second  appear- 
ing it  was  the  bride,  feminine,  the  Lamb's  wife,  who  manifested 
the  tearful,  tuneful,  motherly  love,  affectionate  and  pitying  tender- 
ness, and  tlie  unbounded  sweetness  and  gentleness  of  the  mother- 
hood in  God.  Now  the  peeans  from  their  virgin  children  are: 
The  Mother !  The  Mother  !  The  blessed  Mother !  the  love  of  the 
Mother  !  And  what  kind  of  love  the  Mother  had  ?  We  should  not 
allow  a  feelino;  of  scorn  nor  derision  to  arise  at  the  idea  of  a 
woman  claiming  to  be  the  Lamb's  wife ;  but  we  should,  instead, 
hide  our  heads  in  very  shame  to  affirm  the  possibility  that  a 
church,  full  of  concupiscence  and  lust,  could  be  such. 

Further  on,  the  pastor  draws  a  sad  picture  of  this  "  sample 
nation,"  and  says  :  "  It  is  all  avarice  and  selfishness  —  every  man 
for  himself  in  the  great  centers  of  the  government."  Ah  !  it  is  but 
too  true,  and  instead  of  one-third  of  the  human  race  being  Chris- 
tianized, there  are  not  ten  thousand  Christians  on  the  face  of  the 
globe.  Does  not  his  own  $25,000  a  year  given  him  for  such  talk 
as  I  have  noticed  in  this  discourse,  exclude  him  from  being  among 
the  number  of  the  true  followers  of  Christ  ?  Reflect,  and  then 
reply.  He  very  justly  affirms  the  want  of  justice  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  government,  and  asks  :  "  Can  any  one  say  that  our 
courts  administer  justice  according  to  the  benign  spirit  of  Christi- 
anity ?  "     To  which  none,  in  truth,  can  give  an  affirmative  answer. 


166  Beecher  Dissected. 

The  Goddess  of  Liberty,  holding  the  scales  of  justice  over  our 
Court-houses,  is  but  a  mockery  and  a  sham.  Pour  enough  gold 
into  her  lap  and  the  scales  Avill  topple  any  way,  and  she  will  ex- 
cuse any  crime  under  the  shining  sun.  The  pastor  has  had  ample 
evidence  of  the  truth  of  his  affirmation  in  his  own  case. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  he  began  the  amende  honoralAe  and 
rectification  of  his  own  wrong  in  the  proper  Christian  spirit,  with 
true  heartfelt  repentance  and  confession  not  only  to  the  injured 
party,  but  to  others.  If  it  had  been  accepted  and  reciprocated  in 
the  same  spirit,  as  it  should  have  been,  all  would  have  ended  well. 
When  the  pastor  humbled  himself  before  Tilton,  he,  being  like- 
wise charged,  should  have  humbled  himself  and  made  confession 
to  his  pastor.  And  could  he  have  been  satisfied  of  the  ruling  of 
the  spirit  of  Christ  throughout,  he  would  doubtless  have  taken 
Mrs.  Moulton's  advice,  who  was  then  to  him  really  '•  a  section  of 
the  day  of  judgment."  But  the  Christians  were  not  to  be  found ; 
and  he  soon  realized  the  fact  that  his  only  chance  was  to  "  fight 
the  devil  with  fire  "  ■ —  to  use  the  same  unchristian  weapons  for 
defense  as  those  with  which  he  was  assaulted.  He  staked  his  all 
in  the  warfare  and  won.  Being  forced  to  use  worldly  weapons, 
he  proved  himself  to  be  master  of  the  situation,  and,  in  a  worldly 
point  of  view,  came  oil  with  flying  colors. 

I  cannot  well  help,  in  this  connection,  however,  calling  to  mind 
the  words  of  an  intelligent  negro,  who  said :  "  Da  better  quit 
agitatin'  dat  subjec'  'tween  Mr.  Beecher  an'  de  ladies."  "  "Why 
so,  uncle?  "  "  Case  why,  sah,  it  mout  git  down  into  de  church, 
an'  if  it  does  it  will  play  de  debbil  with  de  whole  ob  'em." 
This  brings  to  mind  the  saying  of  Jesus  :  "  Let  him  that  is  with- 
out sin  cast  the  first  stone ;  "  and  had  the  same  been  applied  in 
this  case  not  veiy  many,  in  the  old  negro's  view  of  it,  would  have 
been  thrown. 

Seeing,  then,  the  equalizing  process,  it  were  well  that  we 
"  should  do  nothing  through  strife  nor  vain  glory,  but  in  lowli- 
ness of  mind  let  each  esteem  others  better  than  themselves." 


THE  SHAKER  PROBLEM. 


A    LETTER    TO    S.    K.    WELLS    OF    THE    PHEENOLOGICAL    JOURNAL, 

[Note  by  the  Editor  :  —  Several  of  these  discourses  and  letters  would  be 
more  replete  to  the  reader,  should  we  present  the  letters  and  discourses  to 
which  these  are  intended  as  replies.  But  to  save  voluminous  ambiguities,  we 
trust  to  the  critical,  good  sense  of  the  reader,  to  easily  perceive  from  these 
replies  what  points  of  interest  they  are  intended  to  embrace  and  to  give  a 
proper  construction  thereto.     G.  A.  L.] 

Dear  Editor :  —  My  reasons  for  not  sooner  noticing  the  brackets 
so  profusely  interspersed  among  my  answers  to  your  twenty-five 
questions  in  the  Journal  are  the  sickness  and  decease  of  a  brother, 
wliich  claimed  my  attention.  If  agreeable  to  you,  I  now  propose 
to  notice  those  of  most  importance.  They  are  like  little  shrubs 
that  one  grasps  while  falling  down  a  declivity,  which,  when  taken 
hold  of,  immediately  give  way,  when  one  after  another  is  clutched 
with  the  same  sad  result ;  but  they  serve  the  good  purpose  of 
easing  the  fall. 

Now,  the  Shakers  are  spiritually  right  or  wrong.  If  wrong,  it 
becomes  the  duty  of  those  who  perceive  it  to  point  out  wherein ; 
if  right,  it  is  obligatory  on  them  to  make  it  manifest  to  the  world 
by  letting  "  their  light  so  shine  that  others,  seeing  their  good 
loorhs^  may  also  glorify  their  Father  in  heaven." — Matt,  v,  16. 
It  is  an  old  saying  but  true :  If  you  wish  to  learn  your  faults, 
listen  to  what  your  enemies  say ;  but  I  prefer  a  candid  friend, 
whom  I  take  you  to  be,  and  hope  that  you,  or  some  writer  for 
your  Journal,  will  continue  to  point  them  out  without  reserve. 

We  want  with  us  in  God's  Kingdom  only  such  as  are  sti-iving 
to  be  good.  You  say  God  wants  (in  His  kingdom)  all  mankind  — 
good,  bad  and  indiiierent.  What  a  kingdom  ;  what !  are  not  the 
sheep  to  be  separated  from  the  goats  ?  Are  the  good  not  to  be 
distinguished  from  the  willfully  bad  ?  You  ask :  Was  it  the 
righteous  or  sinners  Christ  came  to  save  ?  He  came  to  save  sinners 
FROM  their  sins,  not  in  them.  The  saved  are  those  who  find  a 
visible  order  of  God,  and  these  confess  their  sins,  forsake  them, 


168  The  Shakee  Pkoblem. 

and  live  free  from  sin.  Those  who  will  not  do  this  have  not 
power  to  cease  from  sinning,  are  not  saved,  and  must  be  classed 
among  the  goats,  and  cannot  enter  God's  kingdom. 

"  Physical  reform  is  best  continued  through  right  generation," 
While  I  yield  to  you  the  palm  in  physical  knowledge,  I  must  not 
be  censured  too  severely  for  entertaining  some  scruples  in  regard 
to  the  position  here  assumed,  Christ  and  His  followers  advocated 
and  practiced  the  reverse ;  regeneration,  not  generation  —  right 
or  wrong.  If  they  were  mistaken,  then  we  are.  Jesus  Christ, 
our  exemplar,  gave  few  lessons  on  mere  physics,  though  He  Avas 
"  made  in  all  respects  like  His  brethren ;  "  but  of  soul  reform 
He  was  the  teacher  of  all  teachers.  The  one  hundred  and  forty- 
four  thousand  that  followed  Him  were  Yirgins. 

Of  the  wedding  garments,  you  ask  if  we  are  sure  that  we  are 
right  ?  To  us  the  evidence  is  clear.  Some  of  the  invited  guests 
could  not  control  their  selfishness.  The  less  guilty  begged  to  be 
excused  ;  but  the  reply  of  the  married  was  to  the  point :  "I  have 
married  a  wife  and  therefore  cannot  coined''  From  these  exam- 
ples it  seems  obvious  that  the  rejected  were  not  self-controllers, 
but  were  "  sensual,  having  not  the  spirit ;  walking  after  their  own 
lusts."  —  Jude. 

You  ask  how  we  know  Avhat  Zion  expects  %  —  "  Have  you  (we) 
been  there  ?  "  Most  assuredly  ;  we  are  there  now.  You  say  : 
"  Let  Shakers  beget  Shakers,  etc,"  This  they  are  doing  ;  but  not 
in  a  natural,  generative  nor  worldly  manner.  That  would  be  im- 
possible. They  must  cease  to  be  followers  of  Christ,  and  become 
worldlings  before  they  can  do  so.  They  would  thereby  become 
"children  of  this  world,  who  marry  and  are  given  in  marriage," 
and  would  cease  to  be  among  those  Avho  are  counted  worthy  to 
obtain  the  resurrection  from  the  dead,  where  they  neither  marry 
nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  (not  yet  angels 
themselves,  but  like  the  angels.)  Matt,  xxii,  30.  They  would 
be  like  the  young  widows  whom  Paul  advised  the  church  not  to 
receive.  "  For,"  says  he,  "  when  they  have  begun  to  wax  wanton 
against  Christ,  they  will  marry,  having  damnation,  because  they 
have  cast  off  their  first  faith"  (which  was  not  to  marry,  but  to 
live  a  purely  virgin  life,  after  the  example  of  Christ.)  ■ —  Tim.  \, 
11-14. 

You  say  "  Shakers  are  something  beside  spirits."  I  will  notice 
this  further  on.  You  ask  :  Why  we  sit  in  judgment  ?  '*  Do  ye 
not  know,"  says  Paul,  "  the  saints  shall  judge  the  world  ?  "     If 


The  Judgment  Seat.  169 

the  followers  of  Christ  —  "■  though  in  the  world,  yet  not  of  the 
world  "  —  are  the  saints,  and  those  who  do  not  follow  Him  are 
the  world,  wliy  should  the  latter  complain  of  being  judged  by 
the  former  ?     Or  shall  the  world  judge  the  saints  ? 

You  say  of  my  fifth  answer  :  "  It  is  both  unscientific  and  un- 
scriptural,  to  say  that  there  is  no  danger  of  the  world  being 
burned  in  the  way  the  Shakers  seem  to  fear." 

Assertions  unproved  always  bring  more  or  less  suspicion  on 
one's  solid  arguments.  It  is  far  easier  to  say  a  thing  is  un- 
scientific than  to  prove  it  to  be  so.  The  earth  contains  the  area 
named,  more  or  less,  and  that  population  increases  on  its  surface 
in  a  given  ratio  is  indisputable  ;  and,  though  it  contained  double 
the  area  named,  the  reasoning  would  hold  good ;  and  although 
yotf'  may  have  other  means  to  stay  the  tide  of  population,  it  is 
still  evident  that  the  proposition  is  mathematically  scientific.  It 
is  not  the  Shakers  w4io  fear  a  literal  conflagration  of  the  external 
world.  Now,  let  those  who  are  really  concerned  for  the  contin- 
uance of  the  world,  advocate  the  Shaker  or  Christ  plan,  which  is 
to  burn  up  the  world  in  the  human  breast ;  and  in  proportion  as 
this  is  done,  which  must  be  gradual,  propagation  will  be  checked, 
and  the  world  continued.  Either  this,  or  wars  and  pestilence, 
greater  than  the  world  has  ever  known,  are  all  that  can  continue 
the  human  race  on  the  earth  five  centuries  more  !  else  there  is  no 
truth  in  mathematics,  nor  in  efliect  following  its  cause. 

"  Oh,  the  egotism  !  "  you  exclaim,  etc.  "  We  hioio  that  we 
are  of  God,  and  the  Avliole  world  lieth  in  wickedness." — 1  John 
V.  19.  Was  the  beloved  apostle  an  egotist  ?  If  he  was,  so  are 
we,  because  we  know  the  same  that  the  apostle  John  did. 

"  So  few !  "  you  exclaim  ;  and  then  add :  "  Were  yoi6  ap- 
pointed to  sort  the  acceptable  ones  ?  "  Certainly.  If  the  saints, 
the  true  followers  of  Christ,  who  constitute  God's  Kingdom  on 
earth,  are  not  to  judge  who  are  acceptable,  who  shall  ?  Must  it 
be  worldlings  ?  Perhaps  you  will  say,  God.  Yery  well ;  but 
how  ?  It  must  be  God  in  the  seeker,  or  God  in  the  world,  or 
God  in  the  saints  —  which?  But  you  say:  "Go  slow,  Mr. 
Shaker,  and  quote  the  Saviour,  '  Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not 
judged.'  " — Matt,  vii,  1.  This  caution  Christ  gave  to  brethren 
who  were  equals,  whose  first  work  was  to  remove  the  beams  from 
their  own  eyes;  Christ,  while  on  earth,  was  the  seat  of  judg- 
ment for  the  world.  This  judgment  He  gave  to  His  successors 
when  He  left,  and  it  still  remains  with  His  true  followers. 
22 


170  The  Shaker  Problem. 

ISTow,  what  say  ye? 

Christ  was  a  Communist.  Ananias  and  Sapphira  got  into  their 
difficulty  by  their  dislionesty.  There  are  many  Ananiases  and 
Sapphiras  in  this  day,  who  are  struck  dead  to  the  spirit,  carried 
out  and  buried  in  the  world. 

You  ask  :  "Do  not  the  Shakers  own  and  let  out  land  as  other 
professed  Christians  do  ? "  Not  at  all.  We  have  said  Shakers 
own  no  land  by  absolute  right  and  title.  They  once  had  this 
right,  but  it  passed  away  from  man  in  the  general  consecration 
to  Grod  and  His  service,  reserving  to  themselves,  and  to  you,  and 
to  your  children,  and  to  all  nations,  peoples,  kindreds,  tongues, 
or  color,  the  right  of  use  axd  oocupan'oy  who  will  confess  and 
forsake  their  sins,  and  follow  Christ  in  the  regeneration,  by  lead- 
ing, like  Him,  a  pure  and  holy  life.  Any  one^  even/  one,  the 
whole  world  over,  can  come  and  occupy  this  consecration  just  aa 
freely  as  those  who  now  occupy  it  by  living  the  pure  life  above 
stated.  Is  this  the  way  other  professed  Christians  do  ?  If  so 
then  they  are  Shakers. 

"  But  do  they  not  sell  land  ? "  you  pertinently  inquire.  If 
they  do,  the  consecration  only  changes  its  form.  Suppose  100 
acres  of  land  builds  a  house,  no  one  nor  ones  have  a  personal 
right  to  the  house  any  more  than  they  had  to  the  land.  They 
have  the  right  of  the  usufruct — to  use  and  occupy  it  so  long  as 
they  remain  true  to  the  covenantal  compact  and  no  longer.  But 
any  human  being  now  existing  between  the  poles  has  the  same 
right,  on  the  same  conditions.  Thus,  you  see,  the  principle  of 
selfishness  is  destroyed  to  an  extent  nowhere  else  accomplished 
under  the  shining  sun.  Are  we  now  understood  ?  Is  this  the 
way  other  professed  Christians  do  ? 

Emasculation  is  like  Paul's  circumcision,  of  the  heart,  in  the 
spirit,  and  not  in  the  letter.  (See  Rom.  ii,  29.)  Outward  emas- 
culation would  avail  nothing,  but  in  the  heart  every  thing.  The 
eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's  sake  are  such  as  in  heart 
deny  themselves,  not  such  as  externally  incapacitate  themselves 
and  retain  an  adulterous  heart.  Kow  take  a  vote  upon  this  if  you 
please. 

"  Those  who  will  not  follow  Christ  He  cannot  save,"  you  re- 
peat interrogatively. — Cannot  ? — If  omnipotent,  why  not  ?  He 
is  not  omnipotent.  He  is  not  the  Father,  but  the  Son  of  the 
Father.  He  is  what  Paul  tells  Timothy :  "  For  there  is  one 
God,  and  one  Mediator  between  Grod  and  man — the  man  Christ 


Spirit  versus  Matter.  ITl 

Jesus." — 1  Tim.  ii,  5.  He  cannot  be  mediator  between  two  and 
be  either  of  the  two  Himself.  Though  a  chosen  man,  He  was 
between  God  and  mankind.  Since  it  has  pleased  the  Father  to 
bestow  on  man  freedom  of  thought  and  action,  and  since  salva- 
tion depends  on  man's  obedience  to  the  Son,  it  follows  that  the 
Son  cannot  save  the  willfully  disobedient.  This  is  the  "  why 
not." 

"  Pauper  children."  The  Shakers  do  not  depend  on  pauper 
children  to  keep  up  the  institution,  but  on  finding  a  few  "  self- 
controllers  "  among  the  mass  of  mankind. 

I  will  now  notice  your  seventh  proposition. — "Shakers  are 
something  besides  Spirits.'"  It  would  have  been  more  true  and 
to  the  point  if  you  had  said  Shakers  are  something  besides  Tjodies. 
Bodies  are  only  fictitious,  fleeting,  fading  tenements  or  present 
coverings  for  the  real  Shaker  ;  they  exist  for  a  moment  and  dis- 
appear. If  there  is  any  truth  in  philosophy,  or  if  the  deepest 
tliinkers  of  this  or  any  other  age  have  found  a  truth  on  which  all 
agree,  it  is  the  fact  that  the  body  forms  no  part  of  the  man.  If 
this  be  true,  then,  our  friend  is  mistaken  in  saying  Shakers  are 
something  besides  spirits.  All  writers,  whose  works  I  have  read, 
have  enunciated  the  fact  that  the  ego  and  non  ego,  the  spirit  and 
the  body,  are  contradictions,  and  distinct ;  that  the  phenomena 
of  each  are  governed  and  controlled  by  different  laws. 

Socrates,  in  his  dialogue  with  Alcibiades,  maintains  it.  Bacon 
and  Descartes,  fathers  of  modern  philosophy,  afiirm  the  same. 
Locke  and  his  personal  friend,  Le  Clerc,  adopt  the  same.  Keid 
says  :  "  They  (the  mind  and  body)  are  separated  by  the  whole 
diameter  of  being." 

Laromaguere  :  "  Between  an  extended  and  unextended  sub- 
stance there  can  be  no  connecting  medium."  He,  with  Socrates, 
denies  that  the  body  is  any  part  of  the  man ;  and  Plato  says : 
"  The  soul  is  in  the  body  like  a  sailor  in  a  ship — that  the  soul 
employs  the  body  as  an  instrument,  but  that  the  energy,  life  or 
sense  is  the  manifestation  of  a  different  substance,  etc."  All 
agree  with  Laromaguere  that  "  the  unextended  (the  mind)  can 
have  no  connection  by  touch  with  the  body."  He  thus  disposes 
of  the  plastic  medium  between  soul  and  body  that  some  contend 
for :  "  This  hypothesis  is  too  absurd  for  refutation.  It  annihi- 
lates itself,  for  between  an  extended  and  unextended  substance 
there  can  be  no  middle  existence,  these  being  contradictory.  If 
the  medium  be  neither  soul  nor  body,  it  is  a  chimera ;  if  it  is  at 


1T2  The  Shaker  Problem. 

once  body  and  soul,  it  is  contradictory  ;  or  if,  to  avoid  contradic- 
tion, it  is  said  to  be  like  us,  a  union  of  soul  and  body,  it  is  itself 
in  want  of  a  medium." 

So,  my  dear  friends,  you  must  perceive  tliat  we  are  something 
besides  bodies.  But  as  it  is  to  us  as  the  ship  to  the  sailor,  it 
needs  some  attention,  and,  as  this  seems  to  be  your  greatest  con- 
cern, go  on  and  mend  up  the  leaky  vessels  and  l)uild  new  ones  • 
we  can  sail  more  safely  in  a  good  ship  than  a  poor  one.  But  let 
us  agree  as  to  our  prerogatives  ;  Awhile  yours  is  with  the  ship,  ours 
is  with  the  sailor — then  let  us  fraternize.  While  you  are  mend- 
ing up  the  old  hulks  and  making  new  ones,  you  must  permit  us 
to  trim  the  sails  and  show  the  sailors  which  way  to  steer  to  the 
haven  of  rest  and  harbor  of  peace — peace,  sweet  haven  of  peace  ! 
which  none  but  the  tndy  honest  cross-bearer  and  follower  of 
Christ  can  ever  find. 

Kind  friend,  I  have  written  the  foregoing  with  a  subdued 
heart ;  as  it  were  by  the  side  of  a  dying  brother,  with  a  deep 
sense  of  the  little  span  of  time  allowed  me  here,  sincerely  and 
earnestly,  and  in  the  kindest  spirit  of  true  friendship  for  yourself 
and  the  many  readers  of  your  excellent  Journal^  hoping  that 
some  may  be  induced  to  investigate  and  prove  if  these  things 
are  so. 


REPLY   TO    V.     NICHOLSON. 

ANALYSIS  OF  SHAKERISM. 


Friend  Y  :  —  Your  favor  is  received,  and  having  leisure  I  will 
now  notice  its  contents.  Your  first  wisli  is  to  be  rightly  informed 
if  you  have  misapprehended  the  sentiments  of  one  whom  I  will 
term  F.,  and,  as  I  think  you  have  in  some  cases,  I  shall  now  en- 
deavor to  comply  with  your  wishes.  This  request  shows  to  my 
mind  honesty  of  purpose  on  your  part.  I  will  proceed  to  notice 
them  in  the  order  in  which  you  have  stated  your  objections  in  the 
paper  you  had  the  kindness  to  send  me. 

I.  "Creative  Wisdom,"  I  presume,  is  only  another  name  for 
God,  and  certainly,  as  F.  has  stated,  those  who  most  perfectly  obey 
God,  must  realize  the  greatest  amount  of  happiness,  and  inasmuch 
as  God  is  disoheyed,  "  unhappiness  must  be  the  inevitable  result." 
If  the  Shakers,  as  a  elass^  obey  God  more  perfectly  than  any  other 
class,  they,  of  course,  must  enjoy  the  greatest  amount  of  happi- 
ness. You  say  :  "  In  some  respects  the  Shakers  do."  I  ask  :  Is 
there  any  other  class,  or  body  of  people,  that  do  in  more  respects  ? 
If  so,  who  'i  where  ?  when  ?  how  ?  If  you  will  be  good  enough 
to  point  them  out  to  me,  I  will  certainly  bow  before  them  and  do 
them  reverence. 

II.  Instead  of  using  the  term  "  another,"  F.  should  have  said  a 
"  higher "  state  of  existence,  in  order  to  convey  the  true  idea. 
The  life  of  Christ  being  a  higher  life  than  that  of  the  world,  we 
have  chosen  that  life  ;  as  the  aj^ostle  saith,  we  are  they  "  on  whom 
the  ends  of  the  world  are  come,"  living  now  as  Christ  did.  then  on 
earth,  and  as  we  conceive  the  angels  do  in  heaven.  What  objec- 
tion can  be  brought  against  any  one  who  chooses  freely  to  lead 
the  life  of  Christ,  and  live  above  the  selfish  and  sensual  elements 
of  the  world  ?  I  can  see  none.  This  the  Shakers  do  —  I  speak  of 
them  as  a  class  ;  that  there  are  exceptions  I  do  not  deny.  Bro. 
F.  is  right  in  denying  that  the  separation  of  the  sexes  as  sexes, 
causes  dissatisfaction  to  such  as  freely  choose  the  life  of  Christ ; 
but  that  there  is  disquiet  and  unrest  attending  those  who  are  only 


174  Analysis  of  Shakerism. 

experimenting  in  it,  I  will  freely  admit ;  and  that  the  countenances 
of  such  are  indexes,  to  some  extent,  and  also  of  the  amount  of 
happiness  enjoyed  by  them.  To  pretend  to  lead  the  life  of  Christ, 
with  the  heart's  affections  placed  upon  the  pleasures  and  things 
of  this  world,  is  by  no  means  calculated  to  make  a  heaven  for  any 
soul,  and  I  am  not  sorry  that  such  ones  exhibit  their  true  condition 
to  discerning  visitors  who  come  among  us.  But  to  the  charge  of 
scolding  and  ridiculing  such  ones,  I  must  demur.  Than  this, 
there  can  be  no  greater  mistake.  The  office  of  an  Juicier  is  not 
to  govern,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  that  term,  but  to  lead. 
Elders  are  not  to  be  feared,  but  loved.  They  are  to  set  others 
an  example  by  governing  themselves.  Shall  and  shall  not  are  not 
of  their  vernacular  —  do  not  properly  belong  in  the  Shaker  vocabu- 
lary ;  but,  as  said,  the  Elder's  duty  simply  is,  by  counsel,  precept 
and  example,  to  aid  others  to  govern  themselves ',  and  "■  he  that 
would  be  greatest  must  be  servant  of  all,"  must  be  the  most  yield- 
ing to  the  wants  of  others,  the  most  forbearing,  the  most  forgiv- 
ing, the  most  condescending,  the  most  uj)right,  that  others,  "  see- 
ing their  good  works,  may  glorify  their  Father  in  heaven,"  and 
though  being  equals  will  love  and  obey  them  of  choice.  One 
substituting  any  other  government  must  have  studied  himself  and 
human  nature  to  small  profit.  The  government  of  force  is  gone 
when  the  forces  become  equal.  The  government  of  fear  is  lost 
whenever  the  fear  is  gone ;  but  the  government  of  love  is  eternal. 
This  reveals  the  secret  of  what  stability  belongs  to  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Shaker  institution. 

III.  The  affinity  question  is  well  put  by  F.,  and  I  am  compelled 
to  say,  as  I  think,  rather  poorly  answered  by  you.  Jesus  was  not 
the  advocate  of  marriage  other  than  in  the  same  sense  in  which 
the  Shakers  themselves  advocate  it.  The  whole  tenor  of  His  life 
and  teaching  is  as  much  against  it  as  is  ours.  To  all  those  who 
chose  or  desired  to  be  made  perfect,  to  become  one  with  Him  in 
the  higher  life,  it  was  uniformly  :  "  Forsake  all  — father,  mother, 
house,  land,  wife  and  children.  Take  up  the  cross  daily,  and 
follow  me."  But  to  those  undeveloped  Pharisees,  and  all  who 
chose  the  lower  life.  He  cited  them  to  how  it  was  in  the  beginning, 
and  exhorted  them  to  be  guided  by  that.  We  say  the  same,  and 
wish  all  who  do  not  choose  the  higher  life,  may  \\ve  an  orderly 
life  with  the  wife  of  their  youth. 

lY.  Truths  never  conflict ;  and  wherever  there  is  "  manifest 
conflict,"  the  one  or  the  other  is  an  error.      But  there  may  be  ap- 


Evolution.  175 

parent  conflict,  and  both  be  right.  This  may  be  in  consequence  of 
the  incompetency  of  those  who  suppose  they  have  made  the  dis- 
covery. For  example :  The  word  of  God  to  Moses  and  Joshua 
was :  "  Slay  your  enemies  j  "  but  to  Jesus  "  Love  your  enemies." 
Is  there  conflict  liere  'I  By  no  means.  God's  word  to  each  man 
and  woman  can  be  indicative  of  nothing  more  than  his  or  her 
highest  internal  perceptions  of  truth  and  right  — i.  e.,  the  highest 
they  are  capacitated  to  receive.  Moses  and  Joshua  were  incapable 
of  perceiving  higher  truths  than  an  "  eye  for  an  eye."  God 
could  not  give  them  the  Christ  light  nor  life.  Their  development 
or  nnfoldment  would  not  admit  of  it.  It  would  not  have  been 
seen  nor  appreciated  by  them,  had  it  been  presented  to  them. 
According  to  this,  you  will  say  that  Moses,  w\\o  slew  his  enemies, 
and  Christ  who  loved  His,  were  equally  justified  before  God. 
Precisely  so  —  if  they  were  equally  obedient  to  their  highest  light. 
No  man  can  justly  be  condemned  for  obeying  his  liighest  light. 
All  condemnation  arises  from  disobeying,  not  from  obeying. 
"  This  is  the  condemnation — that  light  has  come  into  the  loorldr 
Again  God's  word  to  Adam  was  :  Marry  a  wife,  generate  offspring 
orderly.  This  was  higher  light,  and  a  higher  state  than  that  of 
animal  promiscuity.  But  to  Christ  it  was  :  "  Excelsior  "  —  come 
up  still  higher ;  lead  the  angel  life  in  this  world.  He  obeyed 
God  ;  and,  as  Paul  says,  set  us  an  example  that  we  should  follow 
His  steps  —  every  one  whose  nnfoldment  will  admit  of  it  —  who 
perceives  the  higher  light.  Is  there  conflict  here  ?  ]^ot  at  all. 
But  here  verily  is  progress  in  reality  —  a  progress  which  you  seem 
to  ignore.  Can  we  live  the  Mosaic  and  the  Christ  life  at  the  same 
time  ?  Can  we  live  the  generating  life  of  the  first  Adam,  and 
the  self-denying  life  of  the  second  Adam,,  at  the  same  time  ? 
"  Do  men  slather  fis's  from  thistles  ?  " 

Y.  If  the  "  goodly  Ann  Lee  "  discovered  that  self-denial,  celi- 
bacy, and  chastity  formed  the  substratum  of  the  Christ-life,  and 
this  was  true  then — all  the  sophistry  in  the  world  cannot  make  it 
false  now.  After  having  chosen  and  adopted  this  higher  Christ- 
life,  would  not  the  choosing  and  adopting  the  most  orderly 
Adamic-lif e  be  retrograde  ?  What  use  for  the  Christ-life  if  the 
Adamic  will  answer  ?  Or  was  Christ's  life  a  failure  ?  If  to  lead 
a  life  of  virtue,  purity  and  chastity,  in  the  ^:>/'^.sen.^  tense,  is  incor- 
porating, as  you  seem  to  indicate,  an  error  fatal  to  i\\Q future  vir- 
tue, ])urity  and  chastity  of  the  human  race,  then  your  charge  is 
true  and  logically  sound,  and  a  sweet  fountain  can  send  forth  a 


176  Analysis  of  Shakekism. 

hitter  stream.  But  I  must  say  it  requires  greater  powers  of  dis- 
cernment than  are  vouchsafed  to  me,  to  be  able  to  discover  how 
the  exercise  of  any  good  quality  in  the  present  tense  could  oper- 
ate against  that  quality  and  make  it  evil  in  ih.Q future  tense ! 
But  let  me  beg  you  to  note  this  :  It  is  not  total  cihstinence  that 
encourages  drunkenness,  but  it  is  the  honorable  (j)  moderate 
drinker. 

VI.  If  we  have  the  threefold  existence,  of  which  you  speak — 
spirit,  intellect  and  hody — is  it  unreasonable  that  the  spirit  should 
reign  over  the  intellect  and  animal  ?  I  know  you  will  say  you 
go  in  for  a  harmonious  combination  of  the  three,  each  performing 
its  legitimate  functions  and  duties.  This  is  just  what  we  are  at; 
but  the  higher  must  dictate  the  lower,  and  the  lower  be  subject 
in  its  action — whetlier  it  be  much,  little,  or  none  at  all — or  else 
harmony  is  unattainable.  Should  not  the  lower  impulses  be  sub- 
ordinate to  the  higher  ?  But  how  is  the  fact  with  the  world  ? 
Do  not  the  animal  appetites  run  riot  in  the  face  of  protesting 
spirit?  You  must  answer  affirmatively.  Is^ow  true  Shalcerisni  is 
honesty  of  purpose,  the  subordinating  and  subjecting  the  lower 
to  the  higher  impulses  ;  and  if  the  spirit  should,  in  the  more 
highly  developed  and  brightly  unfolded  souls,  require  the  entire 
abnegation  of  some  of  the  more  gross  and  merely  animal  ap- 
petites, what  just  censure  can  rest  on  such  pure-minded  ones  for 
obeying  the  high  mandate  ?  Beally  none,  I  think.  If  your  un- 
foldment  has  reached  this — the  Christ-standard — ^the  word  of 
God  to  your  soul  will  be:  "Come  ye  out  from  among  them; 
touch  not,  taste  not,  handle  not  the  unclean  thing,"  and  Christ 
will  receive  you,  and  you  Avill  be  with  Plim  "  one  spirit;  "  but  if 
your  condition  is  below  this,  and  yet  on  the  highest  plane  of  the 
natural  man,  the  word  of  Grod  will  be  to  you  :  Marry  one  wife, 
and  live  in  orderly  generation,  and  be  with  her  "  one  flesh  ; "  and 
this  is  all  you  can  make  of  it — simply  '■'■  one  fiesh  •''''  nothing  more, 
nothing  less.  Next  below  this  is  animal  promiscuity,  M'ith  its 
times  and  seasons ;  lower  stiU  is  unbridled  license  under  the  or- 
dinary marital  state ;  lower  still  is  the  same  license  with  concubin- 
age and  the  plurality  wife-system  ;  and  still  a  deeper  depth  is 
that  of  ill-famed  institutions  of  debauchery.  Thus  are  the  grada- 
tions manifest  from  below  up  to  the  animal,  to  man,  to  Christ,  to 
God.  He  that  hath  eyes  to  see,  let  him  see.  Truly  Bi-o.  F.  was 
rio-ht  in  leavino;  marriaoje  to  the  "  children  of  this  world,"  lohere 
Christ  left  it,  and  not  to  suffer  pressure  from  below  to  force  it 


Nature's  Laws.  177 

upon  "  those  who  are  not  of  this  world,  even  as  he  was   not  of 
this  world,  but  are  as  the  angels  in  heaven.''     Is  this  unfair '( 

VII.  Your  remarks  in  reference  to  the  declaration  that  Shaker- 
ism  brought  forth  Spiritualism,  I  think,  are  to  the  point.  It 
would  read  better  to  me  reversed,  and  say  Spiritualism  brought 
forth  Shakerism  quite  one  hundred  years  ago,  and  has  abided 
with  it  ever  since — /Spiritioalis/>i  the  cause,  /Shakerism  is  the 
effect. 

VIII.  I  freely  admit  that  rules  which  require  men  to  bow 
before  creeds  must  pass  away,  but  not  that  of  a  "  visible  lead.''^ 
One  good  visible  lead  is  worth  more  to  society  than  a  dozen  i)i- 
visible  leads ;  and  a  lead  of  some  kind  is  indispensable.  For 
every  man  to  lead  himself  as  best  suits  his  inclinations,  is  just 
what  the  world  generally  have  been  doing  from  Adam  to  the 
present  day,  with  few  exceptions.  Nor  is  it  dispensing  with 
reason  to  yield  to  a  visible  lead,  but  rather  the  highest  exercise 
of  it.  Even  though  the  lead  be  imperfect,  harmony  cannot  exist 
without  such  acquiescence.  I  love  to  reason  with  my  fellow  men, 
and  yield  to  the  best  reasons  offered  me  on  any  subject.  Truly, 
as  my  Bro.  F.  says,  "  Shaking  does  not  injure  the  Shakers.''"' 

IX.  You  say  the  Shakers  profess  to  have  faith  in  the  laws  of 
Nature.  So  they  do.  Gravity  is  a  law  of  Nature.  So  is  pro- 
creation, you  may  say.  But  how  is  this  to  be  proved  ?  Because 
issue  follows  the  act.  This  does  not  make  the  act  itself  a  law  of 
nature.  We  might  as  well  affirm  that  the  desires  and  will  of  man 
are  laws  of  Nature.  I  frankly  admit  that  in  procreation  the  laws 
of  Nature  should  be  observed  ;  but  regret  to  say  it  is  seldom  the 
case  with  man.  But  such  as  choose  not  to  propagate,  do  not 
thereby  violate  any  law  of  Nature.  Perhaps  you  will  say  they 
violate  the  laws  of  their  being ;  if  you  should,  the  proof  will  rest 
with  you,  which  you  may  find  it  difficult  to  make  clear.  But  the 
most  flagrant  violation  of  Nature's  laws  can  truthfully  be  charged 
home  on  those  who  clioose  to  propagate,  with  scarcely  a  com- 
plaint from  the  reformer  and  advocate  of  progress  !  Can  this  be 
successfully  controverted  ?  But  all  this  introducing  and  inter- 
larding with  the  God  of  Natxire  and  laws  of  Nature  seems  to  me 
is  not  for  the  purpose  of  liberating  the  soid,  but  to  liberate  the 
animal,  and  set  it  free  to  indulge  itself  in  spite  of  the  soul's  pro- 
testations ;  or  else  it  is  a  subtle  intellectual  argument  in  behalf  of 
the  animal,  to  convince  the  soul  that  it  is  imposing  unnecessary 
restrictions.     And  hence  the  animal,  in  unison  with  the  intellect, 

23 


178  Analysis  of  Shakekism. 

complains,  cries,  speaks  of  prison  walls,  bonds  intolerable,  and 
appeals  to  the  laws  of  Nature  and  Nature's  God  for  relief.  But 
all  its  special  pleading  is  easily  comprehended  by  the  well-balanced 
and  well-developed  mind.  Would  it  be  amiss  for  me  to  ask  what 
is  meant  by  Nature's  God,  and  what  are  His  attributes  ?  When 
this  is  answered,  we  may  come  to  a  better  understanding,  and 
learn  whether  we  violate  them  or  not  ;  until  then  we  must  claim 
to  be  in  harmony  and  unison  with  them. 

Now,  Bro.  Valentine,  you  will  perceive  that  I  have  followed 
your  example  in  speaking  plainly,  with  no  design  of  giving 
offense — have  simply  spoken  for  myself,  as  I  understand  the 
truth ;  to  help  as  I  am  willing  to  be  helped  by  every  friend  of 
human  progress. 

In  the  cause  of  Christ  and  Humanity,  thine, 

H.  L.  Eads. 


REPLY   TO   .TAlVnESON. 

HAS  JESUS  ANY  FOLLOWERS?" 


Is  asked  with  a  flourish  of  trumpets,  by  one  Jamieson,  in  liis 
closing  critique  of  the  character  and  sayings  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  announcement  that  the  end  has  come  will  doubtless  give  re- 
lief to  some.  I  have  concluded,  however,  not  to  let  the  matter 
die  without  answering  his  important  question  that  heads  this  arti- 
cle. I  now  respond  in  the  aflBrmative,  with  as  much  emphasis  as 
he  has  in  the  negative. 

Every  man  or  woman  who  takes  Jesus  Christ  for  an  exemplar 
—  lives  His  life  —  brings  him  or  herself  into  the  conditions  He 
prescribes,  as  far  as  he  or  she  is  able  —  is  emphatically  an  adherent 
and  follower  of  Christ.  It  is,  however,  thought  by  our  critic  to 
be  impossible  to  follow  Him  and  obey  His  teachings  in  conse- 
quence of  their  absurd  and  contradictory  character,  and  wrong  to 
do  so  in  consequence  of  their  immoral  tendency.  Besides,  he  says, 
"no  man  can  represent  all  truth,"  and  he  wants  the  universe 
for  his  fountain  from  which  to  draw  his  portion.  Now,  he  who 
best  represents  the  attributes  of  Deity  best  represents  truth  •  for 
God  is  truth.  This,  Christ  did  better  than  all  the  universe  be- 
side, so  far  as  we  have  knowledge,  which  Iffis  own  biography,  if 
true,  fully  substantiates.  The  spiritual  truth  of  the  universe  may 
be  said  to  have  been  focalized  in  Him;  while  truths  pertaining  to 
mere  matter  were  more  or  less  ignored.  In  asserting  that  His 
teachings  were  absurd  and  immoral,  it  would,  at  least,  have  been 
commendable  in  the  asserter  to  have  added  this  clause :  "  If  I  am 
able  to  comprehend  and  understand  them."  This  much  modesty 
would  have  revealed  a  deeper  vein  of  thought  than  is  otherwise 
exhibited  in  his  productions,  and  would  have  shown  a  due  respect 
to  minds  equal  to  his  own,  that  might  chance  to  differ  from  him. 
To  my  mind,  his  articles  all  show  a  great  want  of  ability  to  com- 
prehend the  true  meaning  of  the  texts  and  sayings  quoted  by 
him.  What  seems  to  him  a  "  perfect  nmddle,"  is  to  others  of 
equal  learning  and  culture,  a  harmonious  and  consistent  whole. 


ISO  Has  Jesus  any  Followers  ? 

If  I  am  able  to  understand  our  critic,  I  find  many  of  his  asser- 
tions without  foundation,  and  some,  I  think,  untrue.  The  asser- 
tion that  "  but  few  of  Christ's  teachings  were  of  importance,  and 
these  few  came  from  the  heathen,  "  he  must  have  known  to  ])e 
groundless,  unless  he  has  had  access  to  heathen  productions  not 
accessible  to  the  common  public.  Besides,  of  the  few  that  are 
found  in  heathen  works  can  he  be  quite  sure  that  they  were  not 
interpolations  by  interested  parties  from  Christ?  Assertion  is  one 
thing,  proof  is  another.  It  seems  presumptuous  to  assert  that 
Christ  has  no  followers,  because  the  critic  tliinks  it  impossible. 
I  profess  to  be  one  of  the  followers  of  Christ,  as  I  understand 
Him,  but  not  as  Jamieson  does.  It  is  not  his  prerogative  to  dis- 
pute my  claim  until  he  shall  have  proven  my  understanding  to  be 
wrong  and  his  right ;  and  this  he  might  find  a  task  not  easily  per- 
formed. "  The  natural  man,"  says  Paul,  "  receiveth  not  tlie 
things  of  the  spirit  of  God,  for  they  are  foolishness  to  him ; 
neither  can  he  know  them  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned." 
—  (1  Cor.,  chap.  2,  5,  14.)  Our  critic  seems  to  be  of  the  class 
here  referred  to,  as  he  is  able  to  see  little  else  than  foolishness  in 
Christ's  teachings.  He  will  pardon  our  classifying  him.  But  in 
regard  to  the  contradictory  character  of  Jesus'  teachings,  I  fear 
not  to  affirm  that  by  com])arison  and  a  rational  exegesis  the  con- 
tradictory features  will  mostly,  if  not  all,  disappear.  Allow  me 
to  take  one  of  his  most  prominent  examples,  and  one  of  the  most 
difficult  to  reconcile.  Christ  teaches  us  to  love  all,  hate  none, 
honor  parents,  to  do  good  for  evil,  even  to  bless  our  persecutors 
and  love  our  enemies.  It  is  thought  that  His  commanding  or 
making  it  a  condition  of  discipleship,  and  consequent  happiness, 
that  the  husband  and  wife,  and  partial  relations,  must  not  only  be 
forsaken  but  hated,  is  contravening  the  direct  command  to  love; 
all ;  and  hence,  our  critic  avers,  if  we  take  one  position,  it  is  im- 
possible to  take  the  other.  I  must  be  excused  for  taking  a  dif- 
ferent view.  That  they  do  not  antagonize,  and  that  they  are  all 
in  support  of  the  pure,  sweet,  loving  and  unselfish  life  which  the 
blessed  man  taught  and  practiced  during  His  earthly  pilgrimage, 
I  shall  proceed  to  show. 

It  is  well  known  that  Christ  was  a  celibate,  Spiritualist  and 
connnunist,  possessing  a  heart  overflowing  with  the  milk  of 
human  kindness,  charity  and  love  for  humanity  ;  and  who  taught 
that  whatever  antagonized  with  these  should  be  hated  and  for- 
saken.    Now,  selfhood  and  selfish  property  must  exist  in  the  pro- 


Christ's  Sayings  Eluoidated,  181 

creative  and  generative  world,  all  of  which  are  at  variance  with 
the  equal  spiritual  communism  of  Christ,  and  consequently  must 
be  forsaken  in  coming  into  the  Christ-life.  The  husband  and 
wife  who  may  desire  to  come  into  Christ's  spiritual  community 
would  at  once  perceive  that  the  relation  of  husband  and  wife, 
private  projierty  and  generation,  were  incompatible  with  the 
Christ-life  conditions,  and  must  be  forsaken.  The  woman  could 
now  very  consistently  say  to  her  husband  :  "  I  love  you,  Wil- 
liam ;  but  the  husband  of  it  I  despise — that  is  what  has  brought 
on  '  all  our  woes  ; '  and  now  if  you  will  permit  me  to  hate  the 
husband  and  allow  me  to  remain  your  sister  in  Christ,  I  will  love 
and  respect  the  brother  better  and  more  than  ever  I  did  the  hus- 
band." The  husband  could  consistently  say  the  same  to  the  wife, 
and  love  the  sister  while  hating  the  wife.  Hence  it  is  clear  that 
the  wife  and  husband  may  be  hated,  according  to  the  command 
of  Christ,  while  all  mankind  are  loved.  Thus  this  stumbling 
paradox  is  found  to  be  no  contradiction  at  all  ;  and  thus  it  is  with 
all  our  critic  has  set  before  us. 

He  complains,  and  says  Clirist  "  commands  us  to  cultivate 
poverty  in  order  to  secure  bliss,"  and  adds,  *'  let  him  keep  his 
bliss."  I  will  certainly  be  enlightened  if  he  will  point  out  a 
single  instance  in  the  history  of  the  world  where  riches  have  pro- 
duced bliss.  Riches  and  bliss  are  incompatible  with  each  other. 
T  would  almost  go  as  far  as  a  certain  great  teacher  who  said : 
"  Every  rich  man  is  either  himself  dishonest  or  the  son  of  dis- 
honest parents ;  "  and  dishonesty  and  bliss  cannot  occupy  the 
same  berth.  Solomon's  experiment  might  satisfy  any  one  on  this 
point.  He  says :  "  I  made  me  great  works,  builded  me  houses, 
planted  vineyards,  made  pools  of  water,  got  me  servants  and 
maidens  and  greater  possessions  than  all  that  were  before  me. 
Wliatsoever  mine  eyes  desired  I  kept  not  from  them.  I  withheld 
not  my  heart  from  any  joy,  etc.,  and  behold  all  was  vanity  and 
vexation  of  spirit."  All  men  naturally  would  do  the  same  if  they 
could,  and  iind  the  same  result. 

Thus  we  see  that  there  is  nothing  in  riches  to  satisfy  the  spirit. 
Natural  riches  can  satisfy  in  some  measure  the  natural  desires  of 
the  animal  body  ;  but  it  takes  spiritual  riches'  to  satisfy  the  im- 
mortal or  spiritual  man  and  woman. 

Our  critic,  after  placing  Christ  below  the  heathen,  tells  what 
He  (Clirist)  would  have  done  had  He  been  equal  with  some  of 
them.     He  says  if  Christ  had  been  sensible,  He  would  not  have 


182  Has  Jesus  any  Followers? 

requested  others  to  follow  Him,  but,  instead,  would  simply  have 
enjoined  on  all — "  Be  thyself."  He  consoles  himself  however 
"  thus :  "  "  There  is  none  to  do  Jesus  honor,  none  whose  common 
sense  will  permit  him  to  keep  His  sayings.  No  one  believes  on 
Jesus  !  jSTone  follow  Him!  "  Now,  I  would  just  here  beg  him 
to  make  one  or  two  exceptions,  if  he  pleases.  We  will  admit 
that  we  do  not  follow  Him  as  friend  Jamieson  understands  Him  ; 
but  we  do  folloiu  Him  as  we  understand  Him.  Hence  I  here  con- 
front him  by  asserting  that  there  are  still  some  to  "  do  Jesus 
honor,"  "whose  common  sense  permits  them  to  keep  His  sayings," 
"who  believe  on  Him  and  follow  Him."  So,  right  here,  we  and 
our  critic  are  at  swords'  points.  If  lie  sustains  himself  in  the 
position  assumed,  he  must  show  that  we  are  not  Christ's  followers 
by  putting  his  finger  on  facts. 

But  before  I  close,  at  the  risk  of  being  thought  invidious,  I 
would  beg  leave  to  institute  a  short  comparison  between  the  wis- 
dom of  what  Christ  did  and  the  wisdom  of  doing  what  our  critic 
says  He  should  have  done.  Christ's  doctrine,  carried  out  in  His 
life,  was  to  love  and  do  good  to  all ;  boundless  in  forgiving, 
charity  unto  death,  from  the  prostitute  to  the  thief  on  the  cross. 
Such  love  hath  no  man  ever  had,  and  such  a  life  was  never 
before  exhibited.  But  now  for  the  application  of  our  critic's 
wisdom, — "  Be  thyself :  "  Gambler,  be  thyself  ;  drunkard,  be 
thyself ;  thief,  be  thyself ;  master,  be  thyself  ;  slave,  be  thyself  ; 
whoremonger,  be  thyself  ;  prostitute,  be  thyself — don't  listen  to 
Jesus'  advice,  "  go  and  sin  no  more ; "  ravisher,  be  thyself ; 
ravished,  be  thyself — don't  cry,  because  he  was  being  liimself ! 
Thus  we  see  what  a  world  J.  would  have — passion  let  loose  with 
no  restraining  influence— who  would  wish  to  be  a  denizen  thereof  ? 
His  doctrine,  carried  out,  would  make  a  world  of  devils  incarnate, 
instead  of  saints.     But  Jesus,  the  "  Blessed  Jesus,"  has  followers. 


DEFENSE    OF    SHAKEEISM. 

ANOTHER  DANIEL. 


A  certain  individual,  Billings  by  name,  has  found  materialized 
finders  of  a  man's  hand  to  write  on  the  walls  of  the  Shaker 
Church,  or  Christ's  Kingdom  on  earth,  the  ominous  words, 
"  Mene,  Mene,  Tekel^  Upharsin^''  himself  being  the  diviner  to 
give  the  *'  interpretation  thereof,"  which,  in  short,  is  the  calamity 
of  decay  and  extinction,  together  with  the  loss  of  exclusive 
ownership  of  Ann  Lee,  unless  important  concessions  and  changes 
be  soon  made.  The  first  is  to  do  away  with  the  destructive 
element  of  centralized  power  which  was  engrafted  upon  the  body 
of  the  order  by  Ann  Lee  ;  who,  when  under  the  divine  afflatus, 
was  more  than  human,  and  by  her  great  gift  of  spiritual  discern- 
ment caused  her  followers  to  become  as  little  children  in  her 
hands.  This  is  the  way  he  avers  the  centralized  power,  of  which 
he  now  so  bitterly  complains,  was  established  in  the  order ;  if  so, 
it  must  have  been  of  God  divine,  and  not  of  men ;  consequently 
it  would  be  a  sacrilegious  act  to  disturb  it.  But  we  shall  not 
clothe  said  Billings  in  scarlet  for  his  divination,  nor  make  him 
ruler  in  the  kingdom.  But  we  deny  the  charge  of  having  become 
unworthy  of  Ann  Lee,  and  will  battle  to  the  death  against  any 
power  that  may  try  to  remove  her  from  the  regenerative  and 
transplant  her  into  the  generative  order.  It  would  be  nothing 
less  than  an  effort  at  abduction,  prompted  by  lustful  covetousness 
on  his  part,  to  try  to  win  Ann  Lee  by  over-wrought  flattery,  and 
thus  rob  the  children  of  their  Mother.  He  essays  to  give  a 
reason  why,  what  was  good  and  proper  in  her  day  is  evil  in  lliis 
day,  and  that  is  because  she  had  a  power  of  discernment  then 
that  is  wanting  now.  Pitiful  reason !  It  is  no  reason  at  all  why 
a  lead  was  necessary  then  and  unnecessary  now,  and  should  be 
obeyed  then  and  not  now.  But  this  leadership  began  with  Jesus, 
not  with  Ann,  and  our  sole  prosperity  depends  upon  our  strict 
adherence  to  their  teachings  and  example,  and  to  the  counsel  of 


184  Another   Daniel. 

tlieir  appointees;  utterly  and  wholly  ignoring  all  Ahitliopelic 
counsels  whatever. 

In  the  face  of  their  teacliings  Billings  makes  the  astounding 
declaration  that  "•  It  cost  more  to  become  a  Sliaker  100  years  ago 
than  now,  but  more  was  received  in  return  then  than  now  for  the 
sacrilice,"  thus  showing  remarkable  ignorance  of  the  teachings  of 
our  leaders.  It  costs  now  precisely  what  it  did  100  years  ago,  or 
1800  years  ago — -no  more — no  less.  It  cost  a  man  then  just  "all 
that  he  had,"  inckiding  "  his  own  will  and  his  life."  It  costs 
just  the  same  now.  It  is  a  fatal  mistake  to  suppose  that  any 
thing  can  be  reserved  in  this  day  that  had  to  be  sacrificed  in  that. 
This  reservation,  keeping  back  part  of  the  price — reserving  a  few 
sheep  and  oxen  (1st  Sam.  15),  forgetting  that  "obedience  is  better 
than  sacrifice,  and  to  hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams," — was  the 
cause  of  his  failure  to  receive  the  promised  reward — salvation 
and  redemption  from  sin  and  a  "  life  hid  with  Christ  in  God." 
Any  reserve  whatsoever  will  defeat  this  end,  and  it  is  only  by 
receiving  those  sent  of  Christ,  in  childlike  simplicity  and  confi- 
dence, that  we  can  receive  Him.  Our  critic  next  speaks  of  the 
"  inexorable  law  of  compensation  that  cannot  be  set  at  naught  nor 
avoided."  Law  of  compensation  !  What  can  he  mean  ?  The 
compensation  in  Christ's  Kingdom  is  the  same  to  all  literally. 
Spiritually  it  is  a  justified  conscience,  with  the  bliss  occasioned 
by  it,  and  freedom  from  the  bondage  of  the  world,  together  with 
increasing  power  over  evil.  In  these  things  he  talks  like  a 
stranger.  But  the  leadership  seems  to  trouble  his  spirit  like  a 
nightmare.  He  says :  "  The  absolute,  unquestioned  dictator- 
ship of  the  lead  in  the  Shaker  order  was  the  child  of  the  wonder- 
ful inspirational  character  of  Ann  Lee."  If  so  why  should  he 
Avish  to  slay  the  child  and  then  lay  claim  to  the  mother  who  bore 
it  ?  There  is  a  strange  inconsistency  here.  To  pour  out  his  af- 
fections on  the  mother  and  then  slay  her  offspring — "  even  the 
little  child  that  must  forever  lead  them."  He  continues  :  "  The 
wisdom  of  the  spiritual  agents  may  be  questioned  by  those  who 
judge  from  a  natural  stand-point."  Just  so.  The  wisdom  of 
both  Jesus  and  Ann  was  questioned  from  the  material  stand- 
point, as  much  as  their  followers  are  noAv  ;  but  such  materialists 
"  cannot  discern  spiritual  things — they  are  foolishness  to  them." 

Our  critic  doubtless  became  weary  of  being  controlled  by  tlie 
child  spirit,  and  "looking  through  a  glass  darkly,"  from  a 
material  stand-point,  supposed     he  discovered   a  great  lack    of 


Communistic    Government.  185 

wisdom  in  the  spiritual  leaders.  But  he  exaggerates  largely  when 
he  says  :  "  The  authority  of  the  elder  is  the  entire  control  of 
the  individual  under  him,  body,  soul,  and  mind  ;  the  member 
must  act  through  the  elder  in  all  things,  even  in  the  occupation 
of  his  mind.''  There  is  such  a  mixture  of  truth  and  falsehood  in 
this  that  a  special  analysis  becomes  necessary.  The  Elder's  rule, 
over  the  subject's  mind,  extends  no  farther  than  to  determine  the 
kind  of  business  he  or  she  is  to  pursue  for  the  time  being,  for  the 
benefit  of  themselves  and  the  community.  I  will  illustrate  by 
my  own  experience.  I  was  requested  in  times  past  to  work  at 
various  branches  of  business,  mechanical  and  otherwise,  and 
thei'eby  learned  several  trades,  in  all  of  which  I  had  tlie  freest 
possible  exercise  of  all  my  faculties  to  develop  my  mechanical 
genius ;  my  mind  was  entirely  untrammeled  by  the  elder's  mind, 
and  was  brought  as  fully  and  freely  into  exercise  as  if  I  had  ap- 
pointed myself  to  the  several  callings.  It  was  the  same  with  my 
studies  —  Philosophy,  Logic,  Language,  History,  Mathematics, 
Theology,  Physics,  or  Metaphysics,  etc.,  save  I  was  not  permitted 
the  use  of  novels,  sensual  nor  amative  w^orks ;  but  my  mind  was 
as  distinct  and  free  as  is  possible  for  other  minds  to  be  under  any 
circumstances. 

It  is  nonsense  to  speak  of  our  order  as  a  "crystallized  body  " 
with  no  room  for  the  mind's  expansion.  So,  also,  the  charge  of 
mental  and  physical  bondage  among  the  Shakers  has  not  an  inch 
of  solid  ground  to  rest  on.  LCaving  been  brought  up  from  baby- 
hood within  the  pale  of  the  institution,  I  am  satisfied  that  in  no 
condition  of  life  could  my  mind  have  been  freer  to  expand  in  every 
thing  good  and  valuable  than  here,  the  line  alone  of  expansion 
having  been  directed  by  elders  and  others,  just-  as  any  father  or 
mother  would  do  for  their  son.  Thus  the  fog  and  smoke  are 
brushed  away  from  our  critics'  Elder-ljondage  statement,  and  the 
conditions  made  truthful  and  clear.  It  is  the  duty  of  every 
person  on  earth  to  follow  any  light,  or  copy  any  example  above 
them,  and  there  is  neither  slavery  nor  bondage  in  so  doing ;  and 
if  he  should  perceive,  as  Billings  did,  "more  of  Christ  among  the 
Shakers  than  is  to  be  found  elsewhere,"  it  is  not  only  a  privilege 
but  a  duty  to  close  in  with  it  and  obey  its  behests,  and  not  set 
oneself  up  to  judge  it  and  pronounce  upon  it  condemnation  and 
extinction.  The  fact  is,  the  true-souled  and  obedient  Shaker  is 
the  freest  person  on  the  foot-stool  of  God,  because  all  liis  bonds 
are  self-imposed,  whereas  all  others  have  bonds  imposed  on  them 
24 


186  Another  Daniel. 

against  their  will  wliicli  they  would  gladlv  throw  off  but  cannot. 
The  bondage  that  Billings  suffered,  was  that  he  could  not  be  free 
to  subvert  the  order  with  his  "  angel  forces,"  and  iix  it  to  suit  his 
own  materialistic  ideas.     But  he  should  remember  that 

"  Order  is  Heaven's  first  law  and  this  confessed, 
Some  are  and  must  be  placed  above  the  rest," 

else  all  would  be  chaos  and  confusion.  Other  complaints  of  little 
family  rules  seem  hardly  worth  notice  ;  yet,  I  will  offer  a  few  re- 
marks concerning  them. 

I.  The  authorities  must  see  the  letter  correspondence  of  mem- 
bers with  the  outside  world.  ]^one  but  false-hearted  persons 
could,  and  ever  did  complain  of  this  rule. 

II.  Members  are  not  to  absent  themselves  without  the  knowl- 
edge and  permission  of  the  elders.  A  child  can  see  the  necessity 
of  this. 

III.  Whistling.  "While  we  have  no  absolute  rule  forbidding  it, 
it  is  not  a  commendable  practice ;  still,  I  w^ould  not  object  against 
the  whole  community  whistling  even  Yankee  Doodle  in  concert, 
and  blessing  God  for  the  liberty  of  conscience  which  was  obtained 
under  its  martial  strains. 

lY.  Sexes  talking  together.  I  presume  any  restriction  in  this 
quarter  would  interfere  with  his  sense  of  gallantry.  But  the 
sexes  conversing  with  each  other  is  not  prohibited  except  it  be 
two  alone  in  closed  apartments ;  hence  three  or  more  are  recom- 
mended in  such  cases.  Billings  seems  to  be  well  posted  in  Shaker 
Spiritualism,  and  must  have  been  a  member  during  the  great  out- 
pouring between  the  years  1837  and  1844,  as  he  tells  us  what  he 
heard  himself.  But  I  cannot  fully  determine  what  he  means  by 
the  "  new  angel  forces  "  then  introduced,  unless  it  was  the  inspira- 
tion of  "  babes  and  sucklings,"  or  the  false  and  deceptive  spirits 
that  come  to  make  inroads  on  what  Ann  Lee  had  established,  but 
Avhich  were  exorcised  by  the  discerning  lead.  But  true  mediums 
then  told  us,  the  time  would  come  when  some  in  the  outside  world 
would  try  to  claim  Ann  Lee.  This  prediction  seems  now  to  be 
somewhat  fulfilled,  but  we  object  to  her  abduction. 

He  goes  on  to  say  :  "  In  those  days  the  Shakers  were  prosper- 
ous ; "  that  is,  in  the  days  when  the  lead  was  respected  and  obeyed 
by  all ;  and  this  condition,  let  me  say,  when  once  more  fully  re- 
stored, will  bring  equal,  if  not  greater  prosperity  than  we  ever 
enjoyed.     But  so  long  as  a  majority  of  the  members  allow  them- 


Thk  Fulfillment  of  the  Prophecy.  187 

selves  to  occupy  the  judgment  seat,  and  obey  and  disobey  at 
pleasure,  prosperity  will  remain  among  the  impossibilities.  God 
cannot  bless  and  prosper  such  conditions.  In  fact,  such  are  not 
Shakers  at  all.  But  again  he  says :  "  It  was  human  to  reject  the 
new  angel  forces,  but  in  that  a  birthright  was  forfeited."  I  would 
ask,  what  birthright  ?  The  right  for  every  one  to  do  as  he  listed ;' 
Or  to  change  the  government  from  a  Theocracy  to  that  of  a  De- 
mocracy ?  Something  of  this  sort,  it  seems,  was  what  the  expelled 
spirits  wished  to  introduce.  Then  Christ's  prayer  should  read  : 
Thy  Democracy  come,  instead  of  '•'  Thy  Kingdom  come."  He 
speaks  truly  when  he  says :  "  We  were  told  by  the  spirits  that 
they  would  leave  us  for  a  season,  and  turn  their  attention  to  the 
world,  but  it  was  not  because  we  cast  out  the  evil  spirits  with  their 
"  new  forces,"  But  they  having  strengthened  and  established  us 
on  the  foundation  which  was  laid  by  Clirist  and  Ann  Lee  —  they 
could  now  depart  for  a  season  ;  still  thej^  have  at  times  visited  us 
to  this  day,  and  their  power  and  influence  are  not  yet  reduced  to 
the  "  unknown  quantity."  The  true  spirits  informed  us  at  the 
time  when  we  were  looking  for  a  great  increase,  that,  instead  of 
this,  our  numbers  would  be  reduced,  and  that  "  a  great  flood 
would  be  poured  out  from  the  mouth  of  the  Dragon  to  destroy 
the  woman  (Ann  Lee)  and  the  remnant  of  her  seed.  (Rev.  xii, 
15,  16,)  but  the  earth  would  swallow  the  flood,"  and  Zion  would 
thereafter  flourish  and  grow  like  a  "  well-watered  garden,"  and 
her  testimony  would  spread  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  This  was 
then,  and  is  now  our  hope  and  consolation.  We  next  have  his 
"  experience  as  to  the  spiritual  discernment  which  was  manifest 
in  so  hio-h  a  degree  anionoj  the  old  time  Shakers."  He  now  finds 
a  total  inability  of  the  lead  to  "  discern  the  thoughts  and  intents 
of  the  heart." 

Admitting  this,  in  part,  to  be  true,  it  still  affords  no  reason  for 
the  curtailment  of  the  power  of  the  land.  This  gift  is  not  so 
necessary  now,  where  an  organized  order  exists,  as  it  was  in  the 
beofinnino;,  when  all  were  strauijers  and  no  order  existed.  Still 
there  is  much  more  of  this  discernment  in  the  church  than  is  ap- 
parent to  an  outside  materialist.  Greater  purification  in  the  body, 
I  admit,  is  necessary,  and  a  more  close  union  and  dependence  in 
the  gift  of  the  lead,  and  a  greater  separation  from  the  world  and 
worldly  kin,  to  insure  the  coveted  blessing.  I  am  not  prepared 
to  dispute  the  disreputable  circumstances  alluded  to,  but  rather 
suppose  them  to  be  substantially  true,  and  have  been  mortified 


188  Another  Daniel. 

that  any  Shakers  should  betake  themselves  to  the  dark  seances  of 
flesh-loving  mediums  in  quest  of  purely  virgin,  Shaker  spirits  who 
had  left  the  form.     Over  this  I  would  throw  a  veil. 

Billings'  remarks  about  fire,  and  protection  therefrom  by  spirits, 
is  far  from  truth.  Destructive  tires  began  with  the  founding  of 
the  institution.  If  I  am  correctly  informed,  Ann  Lee  had  a 
house  burned.  We  had  our  first  grain  barn  burned  here  on  Oct. 
6,  1810,  and  the  Ohio  Society  had  theirs  burned  the  29th  of  Nov., 
1807 ;  all  the  work  of  incendiaries,  and  this,  too,  when  we  were 
on  the  tip-toe  of  expectation,  and  all  aglow  with  the  spirit,  and 
we  have  had  our  constantly  repeated  cautions  from  the  elders 
about  fire  ever  since.  So  there  never  has  been  a  time,  with  the 
thoughtful  portion  of  our  community,  when  no  fears  were  in- 
dulged about  fire.  The  true  gift  of  healing  has  never  left  the 
Shakers.  "  If  any  are  sick  (of  sin)  and  will  call  for  their  elders, 
if  they  have  committed  sins  (and  will  confess  and  repent,)  they 
shall  be  forgiven  them  "  (and  be  healed,)  —  James,  v,  16.  Lastly, 
our  critic  confesses  honestly,  if  reluctantly,  that  there  is  "  still 
much  genuine  spirituality  among  tlie  calm,  quiet,  self-denying 
brother  and  sister  Shaker,  whose  chief  end  and  aim  seems  to  be 
how  they  can  do  the  most  to  bring  sunshine  and  joy  to  those 
around  them,"  and  adds  :  "  More  of  Christ  on  ea/rth  I  never  have 
seen  than  I  found  among  this  peopleP  Then  I  would  ask : 
Why,  under  high  heaven,  did  you  not  stay  with  them  ?  Was 
there  too  much  of  Christ  to  suit  you  ?  Did  you  wish  to  be  where 
there  was  less  of  Christ,  and  so  retreat  to  Ancora  ?  Was  the 
atmosphere  in  Shakerdom  too  pure  and  rare  for  your  weak  lungs  ? 
Please  rise  and  explain. 


GOD'S  WORD. 


jNTotwithstancling  the  subject  of  what  constitutes  God's  word 
has  perplexed  the  world  for  ages  and  been  widely  discussed  and 
much  befogged  by  w^riters,  so  that  agreement  has  hitherto  seemed 
impossible,  still,  I  think,  it  can  be  made  plain  to  the  common 
mind.  This  is  the  task  1  have  now  proposed  for  myself.  It 
will  first  be  necessary  to  state  what  we  are  to  understand  by 
the  term  God.  It  is  hardly  sufficient  to  say  the  "  Supreme 
Being,  "  as  a  finite  being  may  be  supreme  over  all  other  finite 
beings.  Such  was  Christ ;  but  Christ  was  not  God,  only  as  God- 
man,  the  Son  of  God.  We  understand  the  term  God  in  its 
highest  sense  to  mean.  Id  finite  Spirit^  omniscient  and  omni- 
present. Then  to  speak  of  more  than  one  Infinite  God  is  childish, 
equal  to  declaring  there  is  no  infinite  God  ;  but  being  infinite  in 
his  presence,  as  well  as  in  His  power,  in  all  worlds  and  places,  in 
all  humans  and  all  things,  at  all  times,  makes  all  works  Ilis  own 
except  that  which  is  changed,  obstructed  or  counteracted  by  free 
agents,  and  for  which  the  free  agents  are  themselves  accountable. 
We  admit  that  the  doctrine  of  free  agency  is  disputed  by  some 
philosophers  of  note,  and  although  we  are  conscious  of  tliis 
freedom,  it  is  difficult  of  demonstration  in  the  face  of  necessity. 

The  non-acceptance  of  this  doctrine  is  where  the  honest 
Hebrew  philosopher,  Benedict  De  Spinoza,  missed  the  mark, 
who,  in  his  '"  Ethics,'"  throws  all  acts,  causes  and  effects  back  to 
infinity,  making  them  rest  with  God,  disagreeing  with  Locke, 
who  thus  manfully  comes  to  the  rescue  :  "  Whatever  necessity 
determines  in  the  pursuit  of  real  bliss,  the  same  necessity  with 
the  same  force  establishes  suspense,  deliberation  and  scrutiny  of 
each  successive  desire,  whether  the  gratification  of  it  does  not 
interfere  with  our  true  happiness  and  mislead  us  from  it.  The 
government  of  the  passions  is  the  right  improvement  of  this 
liberty, "  etc. 

Now  the  word  of  God  to  free  agents  is  the  operation  of  the 
ever-present  Infinite  Spirit  on  the  higher  consciousness  of  their 
unfolding.      God  does  not  impress  His  word  on   any  above  and 


190  God  is  Dual. 

beyond  the  condition  to  which  He  has  unfolded  them,  else  His 
word  to  them  would  be  incomprehensible  and  therefore  void  ; 
hence  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  affirm  that  it  w^as  the  same  God 
or  ever-present  Infinite  Spirit  operating  upon  the  higher  con- 
sciousness and  highest  unfolded  condition  of  Moses,  wlien  the 
utterance  was  made  of  "  an  eye  for  an  eye,  "  that  operated  upon 
the  still  higher  unfoldment  of  Christ,  when  the  utterance  was 
made  to  "  love  your  enemies.  "  To  affirm  that  both  were  equally 
God's  word,  affords  no  evidence  of  contradiction  nor  change  in 
the  mind  of  God  ;  it  only  shows  that  the  latter  had  attained  to  a 
higher  state  of  development  than  the  former,  comprehending  the 
attributes  of  love  and  mercy,  in  a  degree  which  the  former  had 
not  reached ;  thus  doing  away  with  the  subterfuge  that  one  God 
directed  Moses,  and  another  Christ,  and  another  the  Quakers  and 
Shakers,  and  so  on,  losing  sight  of  the  omnipresence  of  God 
altogether,  and  concealino^  the  o'rand  truth  that  the  word  of  God 
to  all  humans,  heathens,  Protestants,  Catholics,  Oneidians, 
Quakers  or  Shakers,  is  the  operation  of  the  infinite  on  their  higher 
consciousness,  which  if  obeyed  brings  present  justification  to  each 
class.  But  justification  is  not  salvation  nor  redemption.  These 
are  attainable  only  through  Christ ;  that  is,  by  seeking  until  we 
find  Him,  where  He  has  "  placed  His  name  for  salvation,  "  and 
then  by  "  walking  as  He  walked  and  overcoming  as  He  over- 
came. " 

But  we  say  God  is  dual.  Yery  well ;  but  this,  properly 
understood,  does  not  destroy  His  unity.  He  is  dual  only  in  the 
subordinate  sense.  He  exists  equally  in  both  male  and  female  ; 
He  is  therefore  male  in  the  masculine,  and  female  in  the  fem- 
inine. The  everpresent  Infinite  Spirit  speaking  by  the  organs  of 
the  man  is  the  Father  ;  the  same  spirit  speaking  by  the  woman 
is  the  Mother — His  unity  remaining  inviolate  ;  and  unity  and 
duality  are  thus  reconciled. 

All  anti-Christian  notions  about  a  fixed  throne  located  in  space 
somewhere  "  twixt  earth,  sea  and  skies, ''  are  pure  fiction,  chimera, 
with  no  rational  basis,  as  such  an  idea  destroys  the  thought  of 
His  infinity.  This,  however,  does  not  conflict  with  the  idea  of 
His  kingdom  in  heaven,  Avhere  Christ  is  the  visible  head,  who  is 
still  directed  and  controlled  by  the  operation  of  the  Divine 
Essence  on  his  liigher  consciousness,  and  to  whom  all  must  bow, 
angels  or  men.  But  the  God  that  can  go  and  come  from  one 
part  of  space  to  another  is  finite  and  must  be  some  subordinate 


God's  Wokd.  101 

creature  to  whom  the  term  God  is  applied.  Moses  and  Jesus 
were  God  to  the  people  in  a  subordinate  sense,  they  being  the 
highest  unfolded  of  the  race.  One  under  the  natural  law,  the 
other  under  the  spiritual.  Tiie  idea  of  the  Infinite  focalizing 
his  whole  self  in  either,  is  very  absurd  and  finds  no  support  in 
reason  nor  revelation  ;  because  whilst  operating  on  their  conscious- 
ness, He  was  at  the  same  time  operating,  holding  and  guiding 
millions  of  worlds  and  all  within  them.  If  the  affirmation  that 
"  God  cannot  possibly  be  in  any  evil  work  "  be  construed  to  deny 
the  eternal  presence,  then  the  affirmation  is  at  fault,  because  God 
is  either  omnipresent,  or  He  is  not.  If  He  is  not,  He  is  circum- 
scribed. If  He  is  circumscribed.  He  is  finite,  and  can  be 
measured,  when  infinity  disappears.  But  God  is  ever  present,  in 
the  cyclone,  in  the  fire  that  warms,  or  that  which  rednces  cities  to 
ashes.  He  is  equally  in  the  flint  of  the  winged  and  quivering- 
arrow  of  the  wild  Indian  on  its  errand  of  death,  as  in  His  heart 
to  condemn  or  approve,  or  in  that  of  angels,  or  men  on  errands 
of  mercy  and  love.  That  it  has  been  His  will  to  impart  free 
agency  to  man,  who  may  do  evil  or  good  at  pleasure,  does  not 
deny  in  the  least  degree  the  ever-existing  Eternal  Presence.  But 
to  further  elucidate,  we  return  to  Gospel  ministers.  Being 
appointed  from  above,  and  moved  in  obedience  to  the  Infinite 
Spirit  operating  upon  their  higher  consciousness,  or  in  obedience 
to  the  more  highly  unfolded  ministers  or  agents  before  them, 
when  they  speak  or  act  free  from  every  earthly  bias  or  passional 
influence,  either  in  or  out  of  themselves,  they  simply  are  agents 
or  tools  in  the  hands  of  God,  and  what  they  say  is  the  word  of 
God,  and  what  they  do  is  the  act  of  God,  which  would  be  sin 
for  them  to  withhold  or  to  change,  and  which  should  be  freely 
accepted  by  all  under  them  ;  notwithstanding  such  ministers  or 
appointed  agents  may  have  many  imperfections  to  contend  with 
in  common  with  the  rest  of  their  brethren  and  sisters.  Christ 
Himself  was  tempted  in  all  things  like  His  brethren.  Ko  excuse 
for  disobedience  to  the  law  of  Christ,  or  God  through  Him,  or 
His  appointees,  should  be  made  in  consequence  of  this.  ISTow  of 
appointments  :  Some  one  or  ones  must  be  appointed  to  lead  in 
every  department  of  Christ's  kingdom,  either  in  heaven  or  on 
earth.  To  make  it  a  God-appointment,  the  appointing  power 
must  be  freed  from  selfishness  and  passional  bias.  Then  such 
appointments  should  be  acquiesced  in  by  all.  Because  some  such 
fail  to  properly  fulfill   the  call,  is  no  argument  against   this   con- 


192  Christianity  not  Democracy. 

elusion.  One  of  Christ's  was  a  failure.  The  false  but  popular 
democratic  cry  of  "  Vox j^opuli^  Vox  Dei,'"'  is  at  variance  with 
the  whole  genius,  tenor,  structure  and  very  existence  of  Christ's 
kingdom,  which  is  a  Theocracy  pure  and  simple,  and  every  iota 
of  democracy  that  finds  lodgment  therein  only  has  a  tendency  to 
lower  its  status  and  cause  it  to  interblend  with  the  kingdoms  and 
communities  of  the  world,  and  make  it  both  "  common  and 
unclean.  "  Ours  is  the  antipode  of  democracy — the  one  being 
the  government  of  God,  the  other  of  men ;  the  heads  of  one 
being  appointed  by  God  above  them,  the  heads  of  the  other  by 
men  below  them.  The  one  is  from  above,  the  other  from 
beneath. 

When  Christ  said  to  the  Pharisees  in  the  temple,  "  Ye  are 
from  beneath,  I  am  from  above, "  He  did  not  mean  that  they 
came  from  some  nether  world  up  through  a  hole  in  the  ground 
any  more  than  He  did  that  He  came  doMii  from  some  supernal 
w^orld  through  a  hole  in  the  sky.  He  simply  meant  to  convey  to 
them  that  they  w^ere  actuated  from  the  lower  regions  and 
impulses,  whilst  His  promptings  were  from  the  higher  —  theirs 
from  beneath.  His  from  above.  But  they  were  natural  and 
carnal  and  could  not  understand  Him.  "  You  have  not  chosen 
me,  but  I  have  chosen  you, "  said  Christ,  and  so  it  must  remain 
in  solid  contrast  with  all  other  communities  of  earth.  We  are 
not  chosen  by  the  world,  but  chosen  out  of  the  world. 

All  the  external  gazing  and  clatter  about  this  great  day  of 
scientific  progress  which  is  attempting  to  make  of  Christ  a  myth, 
and  to  shun  His  cross  ;  and  all  the  twaddle  about  more  elbow 
room,  throwing  off  jjriestly  shackles,  and  asserting  personal  rights 
and  removing  necessary  restrictions  within  the  kingdom,  comes 
from  an  overweening  conceit  and  a  restless,  worldly,  animal  nature 
that  is  ever  pleading  for  more  indulgence.  It  never  comes  from 
the  truly  spiritual  side  of  their  being.  This,  under  all  circum 
stances,  is  ever  childlike,  simple,  unobtrusive,  thankful,  prayer- 
ful, meek,  loving,  good,  forbearing,  forgiving,  unretaliating,  holy, 
happy  and  angelic.  Who  would  not  choose  this  state  at  the 
expense  of  fettering  and  crucifying  the  world  within  ? 


REPLY   TO    KEV,  DR.  TALMAGE. 

LITERAL  RESURRECTION. 


Text. — Now  this  I  say,  hrethren,  that  flesh  and  hlood  cannot 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,  neither  doth  corruption  inherit 
incorruption. — 1  Col.  xv,  50. 
When  such  a  prominent  individual  as  the  Rev.  Dr.  Talmage 
can  stand  up  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  before 
an  audience  of  intellectual  men  and  women  in  one  of  our  most 
populous  cities,  with  a  display  of  rhetoric  seldom  equaled,  and 
advocate  the  literal  resurrection  of  the  animal  body,  and  his 
ecstatic  rhapsodies  be  received  with  approval,  it  would  seem  that 
the  wheel  of  progress  had  rolled  back  two  hundred  years  in  the 
ages,  and  that  there  was  little  place  in  the  world  for  the  unfold- 
ment  of  truth.  But  while  the  world  seems  thus  floating  away  on 
the  tide  of  error,  it  becomes  the  duty  of  all  who  see  it,  especially 
every  minister,  to  do  all  that  is  in  his  power  to  check  its  down- 
ward course.  It  is  no  time  for  any  such  one  to  stand  idle.  In 
the  case  under  consideration,  there  is  so  much  spread-eagleism 
and  that  which  is  merely  sensational,  together  with  much  sophis- 
try and  unsound  reasoning  and  mystery,  all  covered  up  by  fine 
drapery,  and  made  so  fascinating,  that  people  seem  little  inclined 
to  go  behind  the  tinsel  and  outside  glitter  in  quest  of  truth.  For 
this  reason  I  feel  it  a  duty  to  review  a  portion  of  the  Doctor's 
Easter  discourse,  at  least  sufficient  to  show  the  sandy  foundation 
on  which  it  rests.  I  feel  some  diffidence  in  doing  this  because  of 
his  many  good  labors,  but  this  being  a  matter  of  grave  impor- 
tance, I  shrink  not  from  duty. 

THE    SEED    OF    REPRODUCTION. 

First — He  says  :     "If  God  had  not  ke23t  on  creating  men,  the 

world,  fifty  times  over,  would  have   swung   lifeless  through  the 

air ;   not  a  foot  stirring,  not  a  heart  beating,  a  ship  without  a 

helmsman,  etc."      This  is  a  mistake.      When  God  created  the 

25 


194  Physical,  Molecular  Returns. 

heavens  and  the  earth  and  all  therein,  He  left  every  thing  with 
"  seed  within  itself  "  and  laws  for  its  reproduction,  "  each  to  propa- 
gate after  its  kind  ; "  and  nothing  could  be  spoken  more  derog- 
atory to  the  character  of  God  than  to  affirm  that  He  created  and 
was  still  creating  all  the  thieves,  murderers,  wlioremasters  and 
adulterers  that  now  disgrace  the  planet  on  which  they  are  per- 
mitted to  dwell. 

THE    UNION    OF    BODY    AND    SOUL. 

Secondly — "Heathen  philosophers,"  he  says,  "guessed  at  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  but  never  dreamed  that  the  body  would 
get  up  and  join  it,"  and  adds,  "  this  idea  is  scriptural  and  beyond 
•  reasoning."  He  afterward  says,  though  it  is  beyond  reason  it  is 
"nevertheless  reasonable,"  But,  having  pronounced  it  beyond 
reason,  he  should  have  informed  his  audience  by  what  process  of 
induction,  or  deduction,  he  found  it  to  be  in  accordance  with 
reason.  But,  having  thus  pronounced  it,  he  gives  us  the  liberty 
of  trying  it  in  that  crucible.  Law  and  order  are  essential  attri- 
butes of  Deity  ;  hence  he  has  not  made  laws  for  the  purpose  of 
showing  us  how  often  and  how  easily  he  could  violate  them.  All 
deviations  from  the  laws  of  God  are  the  works  of  man.  God  is 
not  chargeable  with  them.  There  is  no  regression  in  Him  who 
is  Himself  law  and  that  law  is  eternal  and  unchangeable.  He  said 
of  man :  "Dust  thou  art,  and  to  dust  shalt  thou  return,"  and 
since  then  He  has  not  changed  His  mind.  The  scriptures,  prop- 
erly understood,  are  reasonable,  but  they  cannot  be  saddled  with 
the  story  which  "  philosophers  had  not  dreamed  of,"  that  the 
body,  after  having  returned  to  dust — gone  to  gases  and  isolated 
molecules  —  would  on  some  certain  day,  when  an  angel  would 
blow  a  big  trumpet  in  the  upper  air,  burst  up  through  holes  in 
the  ground,  and  first  call  back  the  molecules  and  gases,  though 
millions  of  miles  away,  to  take  their  resj^ective  places  and  posi- 
tions in  order  to  re-form  the  original  bodies  of  babies,  boys,  girls, 
women  and  men ;  then  after  tlieir  bodies  were  made  by  the  action 
of  the  particles  themselves,  the  air  would  be  filled  with  spirits 
flying  hither  and  thither  in  quest  of  the  bodies  they  formerly  oc- 
cupied !  It  is  no  wonder  that  this  had  not  entered  the  dreamy 
heads  of  heathen  philosophers,  and  I  would  very  respectfully  in- 
form the  reverend  divine  that  the  Bible  nowhere,  properly  un- 
derstood, sustains  the  ludicrous  statement. 


Literal  Resurrection.  195 

as  to  bodies  eaten  by  cannibals. 

Thirdly — In  his  remarks  regarding  bodies  eaten  by  cannibals 
lie  simply  begs  the  question  by  asserting,  "  There  is  no  proof  that 
the  earth  part  of  the  human  body  can  ever  be  absorbed  in  another 
body,"  when  there  is  the  same  evidence  for  this  that  there  is  for 
any  other  substance.  Such  subterfuges  do  any  thing  but  honor 
those  who  resort  to  them.  The  fact  is,  he  saw  that  if  it  went  to 
form  a  part  of  the  cannibal's  body  there  would  be  no  possibility 
of  deciding  to  which  body  it  belonged  in  the  resurrection,  well 
knowing  that  God  Himself  could  not  make  the  same  particle  of 
matter  occupy  two  points  in  space  at  the  same  time.  Thus  his 
whole  theory  Avould  be  spoiled  beyond  restoration,  and  the  mate- 
rial resurrection  of  the  same  bodies  become  an  impossibility.  But 
he  thinks  he  found  a  hole  to  crawl  out  at  by  asking :  "  Could 
not  God  make  a  substitute  for  the  part  absorbed  by  the  cannibal  ?  " 
That  is  to  say  :  Could  not  God  make  a  law  and  then  break  it? 
He  then  adds  :  "  For  the  ^oo^^  resurrected  man  would  rather  not 
have  the  part  of  his  body  returned  which  the  cannibal  had  eaten 
and  digested."  But  he  makes  no  provision  for  the  bad  boys  and 
girls  eaten  by  cannibals.  I  presume  they  have  no  choice  in  the 
matter  and  are  left  to  fight  over  it  in  the  great  day  of  the  resur- 
rection. But  this  is  just  another  thing  that  philosophers  had  not 
thought  of.  Now,  if  by  far  the  larger  portion  of  all  animal  bodies 
is  water,  and  especially  that  of  man,  then  in  the  great  day  of 
resurrection  the  larger  half  of  all  that  were  ever  on  the  earth's 
surface  will  be  floating  in  rain  clouds  or  in  rivers,  or  boiling  and 
tumbling  in  tidal  waves  in  lakes,  seas  and  oceans  ;  the  other  half 
in  building  up  trees,  grass,  flowers,  shrubs,  animals  and  man. 
How  are  they  to  be  separated  and  brought  back  to  the  first 
human  body  of  which  they  formed  a  part,  as  they  have  since 
formed  a  part  of  myriads  of  other  bodies  ?  Again  :  Has  God  so 
far  violated  His  laws  as  to  give  thought  to  matter,  to  dust,  to 
thus  reform  itself  ?  Or  does  the  spirit  go  in  search  for  its  matter  ? 
and,  when  found,  how  can  it  know  its  own  molecules  and  gases, 
when  Omnipotence  Himself  can  find  no  difference  in  them  ? 
Oxygen  and  hydrogen  are  the  same  in  both  beasts  and  men. 
Oxygen  is  oxygen  and  hydrogen  is  hydrogen  wherever  found — • 
nothing  more,  nothing  less.  "What  avails  it,  then,  if  the  resur- 
rected body  has  for  its  largest  half  the  oxygen  and  hydrogen  that 
were  in  a  buffalo  or  bear,  seeing  there  is  not  an  iota  of  difference 


196  Resurrected  Corpses. 

between  what  the  bear  contained  and  what  the  man  contained. 
These  are  not  j)ictures,  but  facts. 

PHYSICAL    CHANGES. 

Fourthly  —  He  further  says:  "Objectors  say  a  man's  body 
changes  every  ten  years,  so  that  a  man  of  seventy  years  old  has 
had  seven  distinct  bodies."  This  is  true,  but  his  conclusion  does 
not  follow  that  such  changes  of  the  matter  of  the  body  gave  him  a 
plurality  of  heads  and  also  fourteen  feet.  The  fact  is  indisputable 
that  the  body  changes  from  childhood  to  old  age,  but  it  no  more 
gives  seven  distinct  heads  than  the  shedding  of  leaves  and  bark  of 
a  tree  would  make  of  it  seven  distinct  trees.  The  Doctor  cannot  be 
serious.  This  is  only  a  subtile  evasion  to  support  a  false  theory 
at  the  expense  of  tnith. 

"purely  sensational." 
Fifthly  —  The  Doctor  informs  us  that  the  Bible  distinctly 
states  "  that  it  is  the  body  that  goes  down  to  the  grave  that  will 
come  up  again."  I  will  inform  him  that  the  Bible  makes  no  such 
distinct  statement ;  and  further,  it  makes  no  statement  touching 
the  resurrection  but  what  may  be  shown  to  appertain  to  the  resur- 
rection of  the  spirit  without  reference  to  the  body.  Whereas 
there  are  many  texts  that  cannot  be  tortured  into  the  sense  of 
a  resurrected  corpse.  Witness :  "  The  time  is  coming  and  now 
IS',  "  "  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life  ;  "  "  Flesh  and  blood 
cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God."  But  if  the  identical  bod}' 
that  is  buried  is  to  rise,  then  we  had  all  better  die  in  youth,  so  as 
to  have  the  better  body.  But  just  here  the  speaker  seems  to  be 
tangled  in  his  own  skein,  and  tosses  it  off,  saying:  "Let  us  get 
out  of  this."  And  suddenly  he  sails  off  to  the  top  of  the  Cats- 
kill  Mountains,  and  here  gives  us  a  grand  panorama  of  the  resur- 
rection scene  as  follows :  "  The  arrows  of  light  shot  from  heaven  ; 
the  mists  went  skurring  up  and  down  like  horsemen  in  wild  re- 
treat. The  fogs  were  lifted,  and  dashed  and  whirled,  when  the 
whole  valley  became  a  grand  illumination  and  there  were  horses 
of  fire,  and  chariots  of  fire,  and  thrones  of  fire,  and  flapping  of 
wings,  and  angels  of  fire  —  gradually,  without  sound  of  trumpet 
or  roll  of  wheels,  they  moved  off,  and  the  green  valley  looked  up,  " 
etc.  Grand  as  this  is,  it  is  purely  sensational,  with  little  sense 
and  little  bearings  on  the  subject  under  consideration. 


Literal  Resuekection.  197 

eesueeection  of  the  spirit, 

Sixthly  —  He  continues  :  "  Yarious  Scripture  accounts  say  the 
work  of  grave-breaking  will  begin  with  the  blasts  of  trumpets 
and  shouting."  *  "  "Millions  flying  toward  the  tomb,  crjdng, 
Make  way,  O  grave  !  Give  us  back  our  body  !  "  The  Scriptures 
nowhere  give  any  such  account  of  shouting  and  trumpets  at  grave- 
breaking.  He  must  have  known  his  audience  did  not  spend  their 
Sundays  reading  them.  Christ  says :  "  The  hour  is  coming,  and 
now  is  the  hour,  when  the  dead  (in  sin)  shall  hear  the  voice  of 
the  Son  of  God,  and  they  that  hear  shall  live."  John,  v,  25. 
This  gives  the  key  to  unlock  the  text  quoted  by  the  Doctor  him- 
self. "  They  that  are  in  the  graves  of  sin,  or  are  now  buried  in 
sin,  shall  come  forth,"  etc.  This  is  doubtless  the  true  exegesis,  as 
it  then  conflicts  with  no  other  scripture.  The  Bible  nowhere  une- 
quivocally says  that  the  material  body  of  any  one  shall  be  raised 
up  from  the  earth  and  taken  into  lieaven.  Such  idea  is  wholly  at 
variance  with  the  whole  tenor  of  the  New  Testament  scriptures 
when  properly  and  harmoniously  understood.  The  saying  of  the 
apostle  that  it  is  sown  in  corruption  and  raised  in  incorruption 
inevitably  has  reference  to  it,  the  body,  sown  in  corruption,  and 
it,  the  spirit,  raised  in  incorruption.  The  expression  is  similar  to 
Christ's,  where  he  says  :  "He  that  would  save  his  life  shall  lose 
it,"  etc.,  meaning  he  that  will  save  the  carnal  life  shall  lose  the 
spiritual  life.  And  further :  If  the  body  sown  was  corrupt,  and 
the  one  raised  incorrupt,  they  could  not  be  the  same  body.  "Were 
this  not  so,  then  the  body  would  have  the  preference  over  the 
spirit,  and  what  would  be  done  with  the  corrupt  spirit  that  in- 
herited the  corrupt  body  ?  When  will  its  time  come  to  be  resur- 
rected from  its  dead  estate  ?  Nay,  my  friends,  the  immortal  spirit 
is  all  the  part  that  is  a  subject  of  the  resurrection.  The  material 
form  when  once  put  off  is  no  more  a  part  of  the  man  nor  woman 
than  any  other  dead  matter,  but  simply  "  dust  returned  to  dust," 
as  God  has  deci'eed.  The  body  is  only  a  clog  to  the  soul  before  it 
is  put  off,  and  would  be  no  less  so  if  returned.  I  here  repeat  the 
declaration  of  the  beloved  apostle  :  "  Flesh  and  blood  cannot  in- 
herit the  kingdom  of  God ;  neither  doth  corruption  inherit  in- 
corruption." From  this  it  is  impossible  that  the  corrupt  body 
can  inherit  incorruption.  Besides,  the  corpse  or  body  that  goes 
to  the  earthly  grave  is  flesh  and  blood  which  cannot  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God.     So,  in  order  to  enter  the  kingdom,  the  flesh 


198  Is  Db.  Talmage  Sincere? 

and  blood  must  be  removed,  the  bare  bones  only  remaining  to  enter 
the  kingdom,  which  would  cut  a  rather  gliastlj  figure  in  heaven 
among  saints  and  archangels. 

MATTER    AND    SPIRIT. 

Seventhly  —  The  Doctor  further  pictures  the  scene  as  follows : 
At  the  great  trumpet's  blast  "  thousands  of  spirits  arise  from  the 
fields  of  Waterloo,  Gettysburg,  South  Mountain  Pass,  etc.,"  all 
hunting  up  their  old  bodies !  "  The  whole  air  full  of  spirits  — 
spirits  flying  north,  south,  east  and  west.  Crash  goes  the  West- 
minster Abbey,  as  all  the  dead  Kings,  orators  and  poets  get  up 
searching  among  the  rooms  —  William  Wilberforce,  the  good. 
Queen  Elizabeth,  the  bad !  Crash  !  go  the  pyramids,  and  monarchs 
of  Egypt  rise  out  of  the  desert.  Snap !  go  the  iron  gates  of 
modern  vaults.  All  kings  of  the  earth,  all  the  great  men,  all  the 
beggars,  all  the  victors,  all  the  vanquished,  all  the  infants,  all  the 
octogenarians.  All !  All  !  I^ot  one  straggler  left  behind.  All!  All! 
And  now  the  air  is  darkened  with  the  fragments  of  bodies  that  are 
coming  together  from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth ;  lost  limbs  find- 
ing their  mates,  bone  to  bone,  sinew  to  sinew,  till  every  bone  finds  its 
socket,  etc."  One  can  scarcely  believe  the  Doctor  to  be  sincere. 
He  seems  to  forget,  as  I  have  shown,  that  ninety-nine  hun- 
dredths of  the  mortal  bodies  that  have  passed  from  earth,  even 
within  the  last  6,000  years,  have  been  in  their  turn  grass,  tree, 
animal,  man,  etc.,  and  are  still  swinging  around  the  circle  of 
vegetable  and  animal  life,  and  that,  before  these  amputated  limbs 
and  fingers  could  get  wings  to  fly  through  and  darken  the  air,  the 
properties  to  make  up  these  limbs  would  have  to  come  from  the 
bottom  of  the  ocean  and  other  remote  distances,  and  out  of  living 
structures;  the  oxygen,  hydrogen,  nitrogen,  carbon,  electricity 
and  finest  molecules  of  matter  must  be  by  affinitive  attraction 
drawn  together  to  form  the  bone  of  such  arm,  such  finger,  and 
that,  after  the  bone  particles  had  found  their  mates,  and  bone 
formed,  then  would  flesh  and  blood,  etc.,  commingle,  and  attach 
to  it,  when  the  work  would  be  complete.  To  accomplish  this, 
God  would  have  a  more  impossible  work  to  perform  than  He  had 
in  creating  the  universe,  and  a  far  more  inconsistent  one ;  and  as 
all  this  would  be  in 

VIOLATION    OF   HIS    OWN    LAWS 

and  edicts,  it  becomes  evident  that  no  such  thing  as  physical 
resurrection   of   the   same   body   is   possible.     But   the   Doctor 


Literal  Resurrection.  199 

further  says,  that  God  would  supply  those  who  died  with  a  limb 
or  an  eye  lacking,  and  would  also  re-form  the  crooked,  lame  and 
humpbacked.  This  would  do  away  with  the  necessity  of  extra 
limbs  being  made  of  their  former  materials  somewhere  in  the 
woods,  and  then  setting  off  on  a  flying  journey  in  quest  of  the 
body  to  which  they  were  formerly  attached.  But  the  further  I 
pursue  the  subject  the  more  ludicrous,  silly  and  senseless  it 
appears ;  and  the  wonderment  is,  that  any  man  in  this  age  of 
the  world,  with  the  brain  and  talent  of  the  Doctor,  could  be 
induced  to  publicly  advocate  so  great  an  absurdity  of  the  mate- 
rial resurrection  of  the  same  bodies  that  had  been  put  off  and 
returned  to  dust,  as  he  could  not  help  knowing  that  in  order  to 
get  the  same  body  that  went  into  the  grave  he  must  of  necessity 
get  the  identical  particles  that  went  down,  and  the  very  same 
gases,  the  same  electricity,  the  same  particles  of  salt,  of  sulphur, 
of  lime,  of  iron,  and  all  others  that  it  contained  ;  and,  as  before 
shown,  he  must  have  known  that  the  same  atoms  of  matter,  or 
by  far  the  larger  half  of  all  the  dead,  had  been  incorporated  in 
building  other  bodies  scores  of  times.  He  must  have  known  this, 
and  at  once  seen  that  the  thing  would  be  impossible  to  the 
Infinite,  let  alone  the  possibility  of  dead  matter  searching  for 
dead  matter,  as  though  it  had  thought  and  understanding.  I  say 
he  must,  with  his  capacious  brain,  have  known  these  tilings, 
which  are  indisputable  ;  and  how  he  could  make  the  utterance  of 
its  possibility  is  beyond  my  comprehension.  Beside,  if  distinct 
matter  had  to  be  supplied  to  re-form  all  the  living  bodies  that 
have  ever  existed  or  may  exist  on  the  earth's  bosom,  it  would  be 
a  question  whether  our  planet  could  supply  the  demand !  I  can 
conceive  of  many  questions  that  might  be  propounded  on  scrip- 
tural grounds  that  may  be  construed  to  support  the  Doctor's  posi- 
tion, but  none  that  give  him  support  when  properly  understood. 
To  name  and  explain  them  all  would  detain  you  too  long,  xlt 
present  I  would  call  your  attention  to  one  or  two  subjects  of 
importance :  "  And  they  came  and  held  Him  by  the  feet ; " 
"  And  while  they  yet  believed  not  for  joy  and  wondered.  He 
(Christ)  said  unto  them  :  Have  ye  here  any  meat  ?  and  they  gave 
Him  a  piece  of  broiled  fish  and  an  honeycomb."  —  Luke  xxiv, 
41-43.  This  is  taken  as  positive  evidence  that  Christ  was  there 
in  the  resurrected  material  body, 

AS    SPIRIT   CAjSTNOT   EAT   MATTER. 


200  That  Descended,  Ascended. 

This  was  doubtless  done  to  substantiate  their  belief,  quiet  their 
minds,  and  make  them  familiar  and  conversable.  What  became 
of  the  body,  if  it  did  not  rise  into  life  ?  I  answer  by  asking, 
what  became  of  the  body  of  Moses?  If  it  was  necessary  to  con- 
ceal it  to  prevent  idolatry,  it  was  more  necessary  in  the  case  of 
Christ's  body,  and,  as  stated.  His  body  was  flesh  and  blood,  and 
could  not  enter  God's  kingdom.  Besides,  the  Scriptures  plainly 
declare  that  the  same  "  that  descended,  ascended."  —  Eph.  iv,  10- 
We.  know  the  body  did  not  come  down  from  heaven,  conse- 
quently did  not  ascend.  "  As  they  thus  spake  Jesus  himself 
stood  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  saith,  Peace  be  unto  you.  But 
they  were  terrified  and  affrighted,  supposing  they  had  seen  a 
spirit ;  and  He  said  unto  them,  Why  are  ye  troubled  ?  Behold 
my  hands,  my  feet,  that  it  is  I,  myself  ;  handle  me  and  see  ;  for 
a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  bones  as  ye  see  me  have.  And  when 
He  had  spoken  He  shoM^ed  them  His  hands  and  His  side." — Luke 
xxiv,  36— ±0.  "  The  same  day  in  the  evening  He  appeared  in  the 
midst  of  them  when  the  doors  were  shut,"  and  so  on  various 
occasions.     It  is  argued  that 

matter  cannot  see  spirit. 

But  the  disciples  saw  Jesus,  therefore  it  was  the  natural  body  they 
saw.  This  is  sound  reason.  That  matter  cannot  see  spirit  is 
granted,  but  the  person  may  be  spiritually  conditioned  to  see 
and  handle  and  feel  spirit,  just  as  the  apostles  did  the  feet  of 
the  Saviour.  The  representation  of  the  side,  hands  and  feet 
at  once  got  their  sympathy  and  rendered  them  familiar.  For 
this  it  was  surely  and  wisely  done ;  but  that  the  stone  had  to 
be  rolled  away  from  the  mouth  of  the  sepulchre  to  admit  the 
egress  of  the  material  body  shows  clearly  that  it  was  a  different 
body  that  entered  while  the  doors  were  shut.  Hence,  it  is  cleai- 
that  it  was  spiritual,  and  that  the  disciples  were  conditioned  by 
spirit  influence  and  power  to  enable  them  to  see,  feel  and  converse 
with  their  Lord.  Christ's  work  was  spiritual  and  His  kingdom 
spiritual.  And  as  spirit  cannot  become  matter,  nor  matter  be- 
come spirit,  and  our  work  is  spiritual,  for  spirit  redemption,  we 
may  let  the  old  body  alone  when  once  put  off,  not  forgetting  by 
any  means  the  significant,  true  and  weighty  words  of  the  Apostle 
John :  "  All  shall  come  forth ;  they  that  have  done  good,  unto 
the  resurrection  of  life,  and  they  that  have  done  evil,  unto  the 
resurrection  of  damnation."  —  John  v,  29. 


THE  JUDGMENT  OF  SIN. 


NO    TUTELARY    DEITIES. 

Text. — For  the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  the  glory  of  the 
Father,  loith  His  angels,  and  then  He  shall  reward  every 
man  according  to  his  worTcs. — Matt,  xvi,  27. 

Before  entering  on  tlie  main  subject  of  my  discom'se,  I  will 
offer,  by  way  of  prelude,  a  few  remarks  concerning  tutelary 
deities.  It  would  seem  that  some  minds  of  ordinary  intelligence 
have  imbibed  the  idea  that  there  are  grades  of  deities  in  the  spirit 
world  who  are  sent  to  this  planet  as  occasion  requires,  to  occupy 
God's  place  in  certain  emergencies,  while  the  Almighty  absents 
Himself ;  that  is  to  say,  when  God  finds  His  peoj^le  too  rebellious 
to  be  guided  by  Him,  He  retires  after  appointing  a  tutelary 
deity  to  occupy  His  place  for  the  time  being  !  Such  ones  cannot 
see  how  imperfect  counsels  can  come  from  Deity,  and  think  in 
this  way  to  exculpate  Him.  Hence  we  hear  it  said  that  the  God 
of  Israel  was  not  the  God  of  the  universe,  because  we  now  see 
that  some  of  those  counsels  were  not  up  with  our  present  stand- 
ard of  perfection,  by  which  rule  of  judgment,  if  carried  out,  we 
should  have  a  different  God  for  all  denominations  of  j^eople  and 
exclude  Deity  from  our  planet !  Each  denomination,  however, 
would  claim  theirs  to  be  tlie  true  God  and  consider  all  others  sub- 
stituted, while  it  is  the  same  God  for  each  and  all,  operating  on 
their  present  unfolded  conditions.  It  is  even  so  in  the  smallest 
animalcule,  the  lowest  savage  up  to  the  highest  archangel.  There 
are  some  things  which  are  impossible  to  the  Infinite,  and  one  is, 
He  cannot  absent  Himself  from  any  point  in  space  without  losing 
His  infinity.  Even  Mahomet  spoke  truly  when  he  said:  "  There 
is  no  God  but  God.     Will  they  give  to  God  companion  deities  ?  " 

The  idea  is  heathenish  and  came  from  heathen  land.     There 

can  exist  no  such  beings  as  tutelary  deities  in  an   independent 

sense.     A  tutelary  is  a  guardian,  and  it  is  unwarrantable  to  apply 

the  term  Deity  to  such,  as  Deity  signifies  the  attributes  that  con- 

26 


202  Evolution  Of  Godliness. 

stitiite  the  Supreme  Being.  It  is  wliollj  unnecessary,  as  some 
have  contended,  to  have  recourse  to  what  thej  term  tutelary 
deities,  or  God-appointed  Gods,  to  account  for  erroneous  com- 
mands, passional  display  or  defective  counsels  to  God's  people. 
These  can  be  accounted  for  in  a  much  more  reasonable  way.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  the  infinite  God  of  the  universe  does 
not  operate  retroactively  upon  any  object,  spiritual  nor  material. 
He  does  not,  as  Professor  Bush  says,  "  roll  up  planets  like  balls 
[I  quote  from  memory]  and  toss  them  from  himself  as  the  child 
does  his  football."  God  is  not  dependent  on  any  thing  to  make 
known  His  will  ;  He  has  but  one  mode  of  operation.  He  evolves^ 
tmfolds,  within — speaks  within  the  soul  of  man.  The  proof  of 
this  rests  on  the  fact  that  any  other  mode  would  involve  retro- 
action and  make  Him  a  dependent  being.     It  discovers 

NO    INCONSISTENCY    IN    DEITY  ; 

that  what  is  given  with  the  unfoldment  of  to-day  may  be  super- 
seded to-morrow ;  or  that  what  is  sinless  with  the  light  of  to-day 
may  be  sinful  with  the  light  of  to-morrow.  If  we  are  faithful  to 
listen  to  and  obey  the  monitions  within,  oui'S  will  be  a  perpetual 
increase  in  the  light  and  knowledge  of  God,  because  He  operates 
on  the  unfolding  of  every  day,  every  hour,  every  minute  and 
every  second  of  our  existence,  so  that  in  the  passing  of  one  mo- 
ment it  may  be  sinful  to  repeat  what  was  sinless  a  moment  before. 
In  this  consists  spiritual  progression.  To-day,  if  your  highest 
light  directs  you  to  engage  in  generation,  it  were  sinless  to  obey. 
If  at  this  instant  your  light  increases,  by  the  unfoldment  of  God's 
evoluting  power,  or  by  the  teaching  of  His  agents,  enabling  you 
to  see  the  beauties  of  the  Christ-life  of  regeneration,  that  it  is  a 
higher,  more  angelic  and  more  godly  condition,  your  duty  then 
calls  you  out  of  the  world  and  former  life  into  the  new  and 
superior  condition,  because  now  to  practice  the  old  would  be  sin- 
ful, bring  compunction  and  God's  displeasure.  If  not,  why 
should  the  higher  light  be  given  ?  It  is  then  clear  that  what  may 
be  sinless  and  right  for  one  person,  or  a  body  of  persons,  to-day, 
may  at  the  same  time  be  sinful  to  another  person  or  body  of 
persons,  without  involving  change,  vacillation,  or  any  inconsist- 
ency in  Deity.  Finite  beings  only  operate  externally  to,  on  and 
with  each  other.  All  words  or  sounds  that  are,  have  been,  or 
ever  will  be  conveyed  externally  on  waves  of  the  vibrating  atmos- 
phere to  human  ear,   come,   came,   and  will  come  from    finite 


The  Judgment  of  Sin.  203 

agencies  or  matter  in  motion.  Who  ever  hears  spirit  voices  or 
sees  spirit  forms  must  first  be  spiritually  conditioned  to  enable 
them  to  do  so.  But  spirits  do  speak  by  the  organs  of  conditioned 
mediums  and  give  us  news  from  beyond  the  vale.  Normally  the 
minds  most  unfolded  in  the  body  speak  the  more  perfect  word  to 
the  less  unfolded,  while  God  is  within  them  both.  Hence  by 
God's  unfolding  the  normal  mind,  and  by  inspirations  from 
angels  above.  He  has  established  His  order,  by  obedience  to 
which 

ALL  ARE  BROUGHT  INTO  HARMONY 

with  Him  exactly  in  proportion  as  they  conform  to  it.  Thus  we 
see  He  has  law  and  order  in  all  things — order  in  the  universe? 
order  in  creation,  order  in  the  human  race — which  order  is  His 
judgment  seat,  and  by  which  tribunal  all  have  to  be  tried,  judged 
and  condemned,  or  acquitted.  This  has  been  the  case  in  all  past 
history,  from  Adam  to  I^^oah,  to  Abraham,  to  Moses,  to  John  the 
Baptist,  to  Jesus,  to  Ann  Lee,  in  His  second  appearing.  So  that 
all  the  teachings  of  God's  appointed  agents,  which  have  been  and 
are  uninfluenced  by  the  selfish  animal  or  passional  nature,  have 
been  and  are  from  God,  and  adapted  to  the  state  and  unfolded 
condition  of  the  race,  which  to  obey  in  the  day  and  time  given  is 
to  obey  God  and  insure  present  harmony  with  Him,  consequently 
present  peace  and  happiness.  In  the  advanced  stage  of  humanity 
many  things  would  be  defects  now  that  w^ere  not  defects  then, 
and  many  things  that  now  seem  perfect  and  are  best  for  the  pres- 
ent conditions  may,  in  the  future,  be  quite  imperfect  and  even 
sinful.  I  repeat  that  God  cannot  withdraw  from  any  point  in 
space  at  any  moment.  To  say  that  a  man  or  M^oman,  or  a  people, 
is  or  are  God-forsaken,  does  not  mean  that  Deity  is  absent,  but 
God,  for  the  time  being,  ceases  to  strive  with  those  who  persist  in 
disobedience — disregarding  the  monitions  of  conscience.  It  may 
be  said  of  such  that  God  has  withdrawn  or  left  such  ones  to  reap 
the  reward  of  their  disobedience.  Still  "  God  is  present  every- 
where, beholding  the  evil  and  the  good." 

"  He  warms  iu  tlie  sun,  refreshes  in  the  breeze, 
Glows  in  the  stars  and  blossoms  in  the  trees, 
Lives  thro'  all  life,  extends  thro'  all  extent, 
Spreads  undivided  and  operates  unspent . " 

Should  we  deny,  as  some  do,  that  the  God  of  the  universe  was 
the  God  of  typical  Israel,  we  in  the  same  breath  and  for  the 


204  The  Day  of  Judgment. 

same  reason,  deny  that  He  is  the  God  of  tlie  Shakers,  or  that  He 
has  been  at  work  in  man  from  Adam  to  our  day,  or  is  at  work  in 
His  Zion  now.  On  the  same  grounds  He  is  denied  of  one.  He 
is  denied  of  all.  If  our  God  is  the  God  of  the  universe,  and 
Israel's  God  was  not,  there  could  be  no  agreement  between  law 
and  gospel — type  and  antitype,  and  we  should  thus  limit  Him, 
who  is  unconditioned  as  to  space,  and  therefrom  omnipresent, 
and  unconditioned  as  to  time,  and  therefore  eternal  and  unchange- 
able. 

THAT    GOD    IS    OMNIPRESENT 

and  unchangeable,  all  philosophers  of  note  affirm.  Locke 
says :  "  Motion  cannot  be  attributed  to  God,  because  He 
is  infinite  spirit. "  But  all  nations  and  all  peoples,  by  their 
greatest  minds,  unite  on  one  invisible,  omnipotent,  omni- 
present and  unchangeable  Deity,  and,  how  much  soever  atheistic 
infidels  strive  to  doubt,  there  is  a  force  and  power  that  make 
them  realize  tlie  fact  that  there  is  a  cause  of  their  being  and  of 
their  intelligence  and  for  the  existence  of  the  harmonious 
universe  ;  and  the  power  within  that  forces  this  confession  must 
be  the  operation  of  that  inexplicable  something  that  the  world 
calls  God.  If  then  we  predicate,  as  we  are  forced  to  do, 
unchangeability  of  this  ever  present  Deity  operating  withi?i,  it 
becomes  impossible  for  Him  to  operate  directly  on  objects  from 
without.  Without  and  within  are  contradictory.  This,  then, 
being  imj)ossible,  it  follows  that  He  cannot  focalize  Himself 
external  to  man,  ascend  a  great  white  throne  and  occupy  a  judg- 
ment seat,  hear  evidence  for  and  against  and  acquit  or  condemn 
the  human  race.  Hence  the  great  day  of  judgment  so  much 
spoken  of  by  pulpit  orators,  at  which  time  the  infinite  God  is  to 
sit  as  Judge,  becomes  an  impossibility.  But  "  the  Son  of  Man 
shall  come  with  His  angels  "  for  this  purpose.  Christ  Himself 
gave  us  the  key  to  unlock  the  mystery  of  the  judgment  when  He 
said  to  His  disciples :  "  Whosoever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remit- 
ted unto  them  ;  and  whosoever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained.  " 
—  John  XX,  23.  This,  then,  was  God's  judgment  seat,  and  veri- 
fies God's  order,  before  spoken  of.  It  is  noio  His  judgment  seat, 
for  God  will  not  have  two  judgment  seats,  and  the  great  judg- 
ment day  will  come  to  each  one  "  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  " 
It  follows  from  this  that  Deity  alone  cannot  forgive  sin.  Why  ? 
Don't  be  startled.  Because  He  has  established  an  order  among 
finite  beings  for  that  purpose,  and,  being  changeless.  He  will  not 


The  Judgment  of  Sin.  205 

disestablish  it.  Hetice  no  souls  can  be  fully  and  finally  forgiven 
until  tliey  have  found  God's  order  and  come  to  His  judgment 
there.  It  becomes  a  matter  of  importance,  then,  to  each  and  all 
to  seek  until  they  find  this  order,  if  such  order  has  an  existence. 
But  this  does  not  deny 

THE    PRESENCE    OF    THE    SAME    GOD 

in  all  sects  and  denominations  to  whom  invocations  are  made  and 
worship  is  given.  But  their  name  is  legion  who  "  ask  and 
receive  not,  because  they  ask  amiss  that  they  may  consume  it 
upon  their  lusts." — James  iv,  3.  If  sin  can  be  forgiven  as 
well  and  as  fully  by  God  without  His  order  as  with  it,  the  order 
w^ould  then  be  useless ;  but  all  history  shows  that  God  has  ever 
had  His  order  for  the  time  being  among  men.  His  final  order 
for  full  restoration  is  in  Christ,  both  in  His  first  and  second 
appearing.  To  this  order  and  seat  of  judgment  all  must  bow,  of 
angels  or  men.  Here,  at  this  throne  of  judgment,  all  mountains 
sink  and  valleys  rise  (the  high  and  low  are  brought  on  a  level), 
forming,  "as  it  were,  a  sea  of  glass  mingled  with  fire,  and  them 
that  had  gotten  the  victory  over  the  beast  and  over  his  image, 
and  over  his  mark,  and  over  the  number  of  his  name  stand  on 
the  sea  of  glass  (all  on  a  perfect  level),  having  the  harps  of 
God." — Rev.  XV,  2.  This  order  of  God  was  the  sign  seen  in 
Heaven  by  the  revelator,  when  all  the  high  and  lofty,  the  Kings, 
Queens,  lords,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  stand  on  a  level  with  the 
lowest  peasant.  All  such  as  come  to  this  seat  of  judgment  in 
time  "their  sins  go  beforehand  into  judgment"  and  "their 
sins  and  iniquities,  saith  God,  will  I  remember  no  more. " 
—  Heb.  X,  17.  How  merciful  is  God !  But  I  hear  it  said : 
If  I  cease  from  disobeying  God  and  of  committing  sins  which 
I  have  been  guilty  of,  what  good  can  it  do  for  me  to  make 
them  known  to  another  ?  Answer  :  It  is  impossible  for  them  to 
be  forgiven  until  the  forgiving  power  knows  what  they  are.  God 
has  established  the  seat  of  judgment  and  appointed  the  Judge, 
who  is  the  light  of  the  world,  to  whom  the  deeds  must  be 
brought,  and  your  disturbed  harmony  can  never  be  restored  with- 
out doing  so.  Still,  if  you  so  elect,  you  may  cease  committing 
certain  sins  and  carry  them  concealed  in  your  bosom  for  years, 
employ  your  talents  in  God's  service,  be  respected  and  loved,  yet 
to  do  this  light  they  must  finally  be  exposed,  or  complete  salvation 
will  be  unattainable.     God  has  settled  this  question.     The  truth 


206  The  Forgiveness  of  Sin. 

of  this  is  based  not  duly  on  the  Scriptures,  but  on  the  predicate 
acknowledged  by  all  of  the  stability  and  unchangeability  of  God, 
and  there  is 

NO    WAT    OF    EVADING   IT 

any  more  than  there  is  of  dodging  the  tomb.  Black  as  are  your 
sins,  to  this  light  they  must  finally  be  exposed,  and,  though  we 
cease  to  commit  them,  those  that  remain  nnconfessed  will  be 
leaden  weights  on  the  soul ;  besides,  "  He  that  covereth  his  sins 
shall  not  prosper,  but  whoso  confesseth  and  forsaketh  them  shall 
find  mercy.  "  (Pro v.  xxviii,  13.)  If  covered,  sin  in  one  indi- 
vidual prevents  his  prosperity,  what  will  it  be  to  a  family  or  body 
where  there  are  ten,  twenty,  fifty  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  out 
of  two  hundred  that  have  sins  of  any  kind  willfully  covered  ? 
They  may  mingle  together  and  come  and  go  and  walk  and  talk 
and  sing  and  pray  and  work  and  play  and  eat  and  sleep,  but 
spiritual  prosperity  for  such  family  is  impossible.  To  prosper 
such  body  spiritually  is  an  impossibility  with  God.  But  if  they 
confess  and  forsake  they  shall  find  mercy,  they  shall  find  pros- 
perity. Now,  I  defy  the  whole  world  of  religion,  philosophy, 
reason  or  logic  to  disprove  the  conclusion  arrived  at  on  the  judg- 
ment seat  of  God,  while  admitting  Deity  to  be  omnipresent  and 
changeless.  I  do  not  say  it  boastingiy,  but  to  fasten  it  as  with 
steel  rivets  on  the  mind.  Let  me  still  make  it  plainer.  Any  sin 
committed  by  an  individual,  secret  or  otherwise,  destroys  the 
harmony  between  him  and  God,  his  maker.  Heaven  is  lost ;  but 
a  merciful  God  has  established  the  plan  by  which  this  harmony 
can  be  restored.  If,  through  weakness  or  want  of  watchfulness, 
a  sin  should  be  committed,  compunction  follows.  If  God  with- 
out, in  the  visible  order,  be  ignorant  of  the  transgression,  God 
within  knoweth  and  reproacheth,  and  the  soul  finds  no  abiding 
peace  until  repentance  is  found  and  confession  is  made 
in  God's  appointed  order  —  restoration  made  and  satisfaction 
given  to  an  injured  party,  if  any.  When  this  is  done,  for- 
giveness and  acceptance  are  obtained,  and  the  broken  harmony 
is  again  restored,  both  in  the  visible  and  invisible  relation,  because 
they  are  blended  - —  "  their  wings  touch  each  other.  "  When  the 
soul  has  done  this,  God  Himself,  and  heaven,  and  angels  can 
require  no  more.     The  sin  is  forgiven. 

THESE    VISIBLE    AGENTS    OF    GOD, 

perfect  in  one  sense,  imperfect  in  another,  always  teaching  as 


The  Judgment  of  Sin.  207 

tliev  are  taught  of  God,  according  to  their  unfoldment  and  pow- 
ers of  receptivity,  do  administer  to  those  below  them  ;  thus,  wiiat 
the  finite  does,  the  infinite  does  —  simply  because  it  is  Ilis  oper- 
ation on  their  highest  unfoldment.  So  it  has  been,  so  it  is  now, 
and  so  it  ever  will  be  through  all  time  and  eternity  —  men  and 
angels  always  approximating,  but  never  reaching,  the  entirety  of 
the  infinite ;  ever  having  the  great  God  to  worship  and  adore  ; 
themselves  changing  from  bad  to  good,  to  better,  while  God 
remains  changeless.  Thus  agent  after  agejit,  in  all  the  cycles  of 
time,  with  greater  unfoldment  of  additional  light,  will  teach  as 
they  are  taught  of  God  ;  and  thus,  instead  of  having  God  absent, 
we  do  away  with  independent  tutelaries  and  foreign  Christs,  and 
so  preserve  reason,  consistency  and  truth.  It  is  improper  to  say 
God  permeates  all  things  as  light  permeates  glass.  This  would 
imply  change  and  retroaction,  which  are  denied ;  but  He 
is  in  all  things,  "  as  perfect  in  a  hair  as  heart.  "  But  should 
it  be  insisted  that  God  operates  from  without  externally  on 
objects,  like  men  and  angels  do,  by  sound  or  otherwise,  this 
would  place  Him  under  necessity.  He  would  then  have  need  of 
atmospheric  air  or  other  medium  to  convey  His  word  and  will, 
and  His  infinity  would  thus  be  destroyed.  Again,  if  He  has  the 
external  action  and  is  omnipotent,  this  would  obviate  the  necessity 
of  any  agent  or  order  either  with  men  or  angels  on  earth  or  in 
heaven.  He  would  be  all-sufficient.  But  that  such  external 
order  and  agents  do  exist  and  have  existed  —  are  and  have  been 
appointed  and  commissioned  from  tlie  earliest  history  of  the 
world  —  is  proof  positive  that  God  does  not  operate  externally ; 
and  since  He  does  not,  herein  lies  the  absolute  necessity  of  a 
visible  order  and  seat  of  judgment,  and  confirms  the  declaration 
that  all  external  operations  are  those  of  finite  agencies,  either 
spirit  or  mortal.  This  point  then,  I  think,  is  proved.  I  am  still 
asked,  how  are  we  to  know  that  such  and  such  agents  are  God- 
appointed?  That  is  just  what  cavilers  said  to  Christ  —  '•  Is  not 
this  Jesus,  whose  father  and  mother  we  know  ?  "  —  John  vi,  43, 
and  "  Master,  we  would  have  a  sign  from  Thee.  "  But  He 
answered  and  said :  "  An  evil  and  adulterous  generation  seeketh 
after  a  sign,  and  there  shall  no  sign  be  given  it.  "  I  would  say, 
let  their  life  and  testimony  be  the  sign.  If  they  ask  you  to 
vary  from  the  life  of  Christ,  you  need  not  obey  ;  but  if  they  ask 
you  to  live  the  Christ  life,  and  you  will  do  it,  you  will  not  want 
a  sign.     Persons  finding  the  visible  order  of  God,  and  seeing 


208  The  Judgment  Seat. 

His  attributes  externally  manifested  by  finite  agents  to  them  and 
to  the  world  in  a  higher  degree  than  they  have  attained  to,  who, 
through  pride  or  any  of  the  lower  impulses,  refuse  to  acknowl- 
edge, yield  to  and  be  led  by  it,  are  foolish  indeed.  This  would 
be  trifling  away  their  day,  call  and  opportunity.  But  still  more 
foolish  are  those  who,  having  seen,  blended  with  and  "  tasted  of 
the  good  things  of  God  and  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come  " 
[Heb.  vi,  4],  revealed  to  them  in  and  through  the  visible  order, 
tarn  their  backs  upon  it  because  their  ideal  of  perfection  is  not 
found  in  it,  constitute  themselves  judges,  and  say :  "  Who  is 
Moses  ?  Are  not  all  God's  peojjle  holy  ?  " 

The  same  that  existed  in  the  type  appears  in  the  substance,  as 
some  even  of  authority  say  of  the  anointed  Lead  :  "  Who  are  they 
more  than  others  ?  Are  not  others  as  good  as  they  ?  Does  not  the 
Christ-spirit  dwell  in  and  administer  to  all  the  good  ?  I  do  not 
believe  in  one  worm  of  the  dust  bowing  before  another  worm  of 
the  dust"  —  forgetting  the  gracious  words  of  Mother  Ann  Lee, 
who,  when  some  would  do  her  reverence,  said  :  "  It  is  not  tne 
you  love,  but  God  in  me.  "  The  mere  persons  of  the  anointed 
first  Lead  neither  want  nor  deserve  more  reverence  than  other 
persons  equally  good.  But  God,  in  His  order  visible  must  be 
reverenced,  or  the  ijivisihle  God  will  not  accept  your  reverence. 
So  it  will  be  wasted  adoration.  The  Apostle  Paul  says  it  is 
impossible  to  renew  such  to  repentance,  because  they  have  cruci- 
fied to  themselves  the  Son  of  God  afresh  and  put  Him  to  open 
shame.  Heb.  vi,  6.  Such  ones,  at  least,  prepare  themselves  for 
the  earth  (earthly  nature)  to  open  her  mouth  and  swallow  them 
up,  though  in  tears  and  mourning,  as  was  done  in  the  type.  They 
seem  not  to  realize  the  fact  that  to  reject  the  visible  is  also  to 
reject  the  invisible  and  leave  them  without  hope  in  this  or  any 
other  world  !  They  may  look  up  and  strive  to  see  the  great  God 
in  whom  they  trust,  but  this  sight  is  only 

RESERVED    FOR    THE    PUKE    IIT    HEART, 

few  as  they  are,  and  these  can  only  see  Him  in  the  spirit  faces 
and  life  of  His  order  of  appointed  agents  and  people.  So,  let 
the  "exalted  imagination"  come  down  and  look  for  God  where 
He  may  be  seen  —  where  He  is  pleased  to  manifest  Himself.  I 
repeat  again,  here  is  His  judgment  seat  before  which  all  must 
bow,  of  angels  or  men  —  for  it  is  impossible  that  a  changeless 
God  should  establish  an  order  of  judgment  with  exceptions  to  it. 


The  Judgment  of  Sin,  209 

So,  then,  it  follows  that  obedience  to  this  order  when  found  is 
man's  only  chance  for  full  redemption.  I  cannot  too  often  repeat 
that  it  is  impossible  for  a  changeless  Infinite  Being  to  focalize 
and  show  Himself  external  to  man,  only  as  He  is  pleased  to 
reveal  Himself  through  the  finite.  "  They  tliat  have  seen  Me," 
said  Christ,  "  have  seen  the  Father  "  —  seen  the  attributes  of  the 
Father  manifested  to  them. 

By  seeing  Christ  they  did  not  see  the  Infinite  wholeness.  This, 
Christ  Himself  never  saw,  nor  ever  will  see.  "  No  man  hath 
seen  God  at  any  time,  the  only  begotten  Son,  who  is  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath  declared  Him."  —  John  i,  IS. 
But  Christ  was  His  judgment  seat ;  after  Him  His  disciples 
were  —  "  All  that  my  Father  hath  given  me  have  I  given  them ;  " 
next,  "The  saints  shall  judge  the  world"  —  1  Cor.  i,  2;  "For 
behold  the  Lord  cometh  in  myriads  of  His  saints  to  execute  judg- 
ment upon  all,  and  to  convince  all  that  are  ungodly  among  them 
of  all  their  ungodly  deeds  which  they  have  ungodly  connnitted, 
and  of  all  their  hard  speeches  which  ungodly  sinners  hare 
spoken"  —  Jude  14  and  15  ;  "and  the  kingdom  and  dominion 
and  the  greatness  of  the  kingdom  under  the  whole  hea\'en  shall 
be  given  to  the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  ;  "  "  and 
the  judgment  was  set  and  the  books  were  opened."  —  Dan.  vii, 
10  and  27,      Do  not  now,  with  Pope,  begin  to  doubt,  saying: 

"I  know 

The  saints  must  merit  God's  peculiar  care, 
But  whom  but  God  can  tell  us  who  they  are  !  " 

"  Seek  and  ye  shall  find  ;  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto 
you." — Matt,  vii,  7. 

"  For  the  time  is  come  that  judgment  must  begin  at  the  house 
of  God,  and  if  it  first  begin  at  us,  what  shall  be  the  end  of  them 
that  obey  not  the  gospel  of  God  ?  "  —  1  Peter  iv,  IT. 

Thus  have  I  shown  you  from  sacred  writ  what  the  judgment 
is,  and  what  its  purposes  are.  I  have  also  shown  you  that  it 
accords  with  philosophy,  reason,  logic  and  sound  sense  —  have 
made  it  plain  to  the  common  and  uncommon  understanding.  I 
have  shown  that  God  cannot  forgive  your  sins  without  confession, 
and  that  to  His  visible  order.  Then,  as  you  value  your  soul, 
hesitate  not,  but  come  at  once  to  the  judgment,  that  your  "  sins 
may  be  blotted  out,"  and  the  angel  life  attained  to  in  this  world. 
Lo,  then,  let  all  who  hear  —  let  all  who  read  this  in  any  part  of 
the  world,  of  any  nation,  kindred  or.  tongue — consider  them- 
27 


210  The  Judgment  of  Sin. 

selves  invited  to  come,  with  a  life  insurance  in  God's  kingdom  on 
earth.  All  that  are  sick  of  the  woi'ld  and  world  of  sin,  all  who 
desire  a  higher  and  better  life  than  the  world  affords,  all  who 
feel  that  they  have  a  soul  to  be  saved  or  lost,  all,  all  may  con- 
sider themselves  invited.  Are  you  a  King,  or  are  you  a  Queen  i 
Consider  yourselves  invited.  Are  you  Emperor  or  Empress,  or 
President,  statesman  or  lawyer,  doctor  or  religionist  of  any  de- 
nomination ?  You  are  invited.  Are  you  rich,  or  are  you  poor  ? 
Are  you  male  or  female,  white,  black  or  yellow  ?  You  are  in- 
vited to  come.  The  gates  stand  ajar  waiting  your  arrival.  Come 
to  a  merciful  judgment,  and  it  will  soon  be  known  whether  you 
are  a  fit  subject  for  a  seat  in  the  kingdom.  "  Come  now,  let  us 
reason  together,"  saith  the  Lord.  "  Though  your  sins  be  as  scar 
let,  they  shall  be  white  as  snow ;  though  they  be  red  like  crim- 
son, they  shall  be  white  as  wool.  If  ye  be  loilling  and  (ibedieitt^ 
ye  shall  eat  the  good  of  the  land."  —  Isa.  i,  18,  19.  Come  now, 
"  consult  not  with  flesh  and  blood."  Are  you  married  %  "  Come, 
let  your  eyes  be  made  single  that  your  bodies  may  be  full  of 
light,  for  while  it  is  evil  (double),  tlie  body  is  full  of  darkness."  — 
Luke  xii,  Si.  Are  you  single  %  Come,  that  you  may  be  married 
to  Christ.  Are  you  athirst  %  Come,  partake  of  the  waters  of 
life  freely  and  live.  Come,  I  say  again,  to  God's  merciful  judg- 
ment, for  know  ye  of  a  certainty  that  at  some  time  every  one  of 
you  must  be  judged  for  the  "  deeds  done  in  the  body,  whether 
they  be  good  or  whether  they  be  evil."  "  For  the  Son  of  Man 
shall  come  in  the  glory  of  the  Father  with  His  angels,  and  then 
He  will  reward  every  man  according  to  his  works."     Amen  ! 


INFIDEL  MISTAKES. 


Ingeksoll    Shaken. 

Text.  —  For  ihe  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  ihhigs  of  the 
spirit  of  God,  for  they  are  foolishness  to  him  /  neither  can  he 
know  them,  hecause  they  are  spiritxially  discerned.  — -  [First 
Cor.  ii,  14. 

Every  honest  man  will,  while  commenting  on  the  writings  of 
another,  give  them  a  rational  construction  when  it  is  possible 
to  do  so.  The  Bible,  which  the  Colonel  assails  with  such 
vehement  vituperation  and  sarcastic  epithets,  he  may  find  is  not 
so  easily  demolished  as  he  has  supposed.  A  book  which  contains 
ages  in  a  chapter,  and  a  book  in  a  verse,  needs  the  most  profound 
study  to  be  even  partially  understood.  He  informs  us  that  this 
book  was  made  from  a  jumble  of  unpunctuated  Hebrew  conso- 
nants. That  such  a  book  could  be  produced  of  such  material  speaks 
much  in  its  praise,  and  affords  much  evidence  of  its  original  inspi- 
ration. We  find  it  to  be  a  book  speaking  of  three  w^orlds  —  the 
macrocosm,  the  microcosm  and  the  spiritual  —  sometimes  of  one, 
sometimes  of  another,  and  sometimes  of  all  three  in  very  close  con- 
nection. We  find  it  also  abounding,  besides  its  history,  in  metaphor, 
parable,  allegory  and  beautiful  tropes  and  figures  of  speech  much 
of  which  the  unspiritual  mind  cannot  readily  understand.  "  For 
the  natural  mind  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  spirit  of  God,  for 
they  are  foolishness  to  him  ;  neither  can  he  know  them,  because 
they  are  spiritually  discerned."  But  the  Bible,  so  much  ridiculed 
by  skeptics,  does  not  need  defense  half  so  much  as  it  needs  to  be 
understood,  which  is  almost  a  nopeiess  task  to  the  natural  and 
carnal  mind.  There  is  no  perfect  book ;  absolute  perfection 
exists  nowhere,  only  in  Deity.  The  Colonel,  in  portraying  the 
mistakes  of  Moses,  not  only  mistakes  Moses  but  inakes  mistakes 
himself,  some  of  which  I  shall  endeavor  to  point  out  to  you 
to-day.  While  assuring  us  of  his  entire  sincerity,  he  exhibits 
much  that  is  disingenuous.  He  says  :  "  They  say  the  book  is 
inspired.  I  do  not  care  whether  it  is  or  not.  The  question  is, 
is  it  true  ?  If  true,   it  does  not  need  to  be  inspired  ;  nothing 


212  Cause  of  Creation. 

needs  inspiration  but  a  falsehood,  or  mistake."  If  this  is  true, 
the  Colonel  needs  inspiration  badly  himself,  for  we  find  both  in 
his  eloquent  diatribes  ;  but  this  is  mere  play  upon  words.  Inspi- 
ration makes  nothing  either  true  or  false,  and  may  itself  be 
either  one  or  the  other.  He  continues:  "The  gentleman  who 
wrote  the  Bible  begins  by  telling  ns  that  God  made  the  universe 
out  of  nothing.  "  Right  here,  according  to  the  Colonel,  is  where 
inspiration  ought  to  come  in,  because  the  gentleman  he  speaks  of 
tells  us  no  snch  thing ;  and,  as  the  Colonel  says,  "  a  lie  will  not 
fit  any  thing  except  another  lie  made  for  the  express  purpose,  " 
we  must  be  on  the  lookout  to  see  where  the  fittings  take  place. 
There  is  little  apology  for  this  mistake,  as  he  has  education 
enough  to  know  that  something  cannot  be  made  out  of  nothing. 
It  is  disingenuous  to  make  the  Book  say  what  it  does  not.  He 
also  knows  that  to  change  or  invest  with  a  new  character  is  to 
create,  and  this  is  just  what  is  said  in  the  Book,  and  no  more. 

THE    TERM    NOTHING 

was  not  found  there,  and  was  doubtless  absent  from  the  thoughts 
of  the  sacred  penman.  The  next  thing  he  proceeds  to  tell  us  is 
"  that  God  divided  the  darkness  from  the  light,  and  there  may 
be  in  immensity  some  Being  whose  wing  in  the  universe  exists, 
whose  every  thought  is  a  glittering  star,  but  I  know  nothing 
about  Him,  not  the  slightest,"  thus  proving  the  text  to  be  true  ; 
but,  by  dividing  the  light  from  the  darkness,  he  may  coine  to 
agree  with  Spencer  and  Tyndall.  The  former  says  we  cannot 
help  knowing  that  such  power  exists,  and  the  latter  admits  an 
inscrutable  power  behind  nature,  confirming  Spencer.  As  the 
Colonel  questions  ns  freely,  we  shall  take  with  him  the  same 
liberty,  and  ask :  Has  ordinary  matter,  such  as  the  accidents  of 
tree,  rock,  etc.,  the  power  of  thought  ?  You  will  say  no.  Then 
I  ask :  What  is  it  that  thinks  ^  You  may  reply,  as  some  do,  and 
say  :  It  is  the  action  of  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain.  We  know 
the  properties  of  this  gray  matter,  it  is  mostly  phosphorus  and 
electricity.  I  then  ask  :  Did  these  think  before  forming  the  gray 
matter  ?  You  will  say  no.  I  will  then  ask,  how  it  came  to- form 
this  gray  matter,  since  it  could  not  think  how  to  do  it  ?  You  can 
only  say,  I  don't  know.  Well,  you  know  there  was  a  cause  of 
its  so  forming.  Yes,  because  it  is  an  effect,  and  there  cannot  be 
an  effect  without  a  cause.  It  follows,  then,  that  this  cause  was 
something  besides  matter.     I  ask,  then,  what  was  it  ?     You  may 


Infidel  Mistakes.  213 

say  an  inscrutable  force  in  nature.  You  agree,  then,  that  this 
force  is  not  matter,  for  matter  itself  could  not  think  how  to  make 
matter  think  ?  Well,  yes.  Well,  then,  seeing  it  is  not  matter, 
it  must  be  a  distinct  substance  from  matter,  and  as  it  is  cause 
underlying  all  causes,  what  better  name  can  it  have  than  God  i 
Perhaps  none.  And  as  this  intelligent  force,  or  God,  is  also 
called  Spirit,  you  must  agree  that  it  is  not  only  distinct  from  mat- 
ter, inscrutable,  but  all-powerful  and  unchangeable ;  hence,  we 
are  bound  to  admit  that  it  is  the  cause  of  causes  and  the  power 
of  thought,  which  power,  together  with  reason.  He  has  dele- 
gated to  man.  Now,  as  you  can  know  this  as  well  as  any  one, 
and  cannot  escape  from  it,  then  "  come  up  to  the  rack  like  a 
man,"  and  agree  that  it  is  the  Infinite  God,  the  fountain  of  in- 
telligence to  whom  His  creatures  are  accountable.  This,  then,  is 
the  God  the  Bible  speaks  of,  which  the  Colonel  so  ignorantly 
ridicules.  But  it  also  speaks  of  God  in  the  subordinate  sense,  as 
that  of  Moses,  Elijah  and  Christ,  whom  the  Colonel  says  he  hates  ; 
but  why  should  he  hate  poor  mortals  because  they  spake  from 
their  highest  unfolding,  or  because  they  were  in  advance  of  others 
and  were  called  God  ?  ]^o  good  reason  can  be  given  why  such 
should  be  hated,  nor  for  hating  the  Infinite  because  He  did  not 
give  other  inspirations.  I^ow,  as  we  have  made  him  kno^^'  that 
God  exists,  we  shall  undertake  to  show  how  much  he  is  mistaken 
in  his  warfare  upon  the  little  gods.  Before  too  much  side-split- 
ting laughter  about  God  dividing  the  darkness  from  the  light,  we 
should  be  certain  as  to  which  world  was  meant.  All  will  ac- 
knowledge that  it  is 

MIGHTILY   MIXED 

in  the  microcosmic  world,  and  in  no  one  part  is  the  mixture  more 
complete  than  it  is  in  the  ColoneFs  own  little  microcosm.  If 
God  can  separate  it  there,  the  Bible  statement  will  be  confirmed 
—  and  the  "  gentleman  who  saw  God  dividing  the  light  from 
the  darkness  "  was  not  so  far  wrong  as  the  Colonel  imagined. 
But  he  goes  on  with  false  charges,  and  says :  "  The  gods  came 
down  to  make  love  to  the  daughters  of  men.  "  This  mistake  is 
made  to  "  fit  in  "  with  the  others.  The  Colonel  read  too  hastily. 
It  reads :  "  The  sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters  of  men  ;  that 
they  were  fair,  and  they  took  wives  of  whom  they  chose.  "  The 
sons  of  God  were  those  who  were  called  into  the  Adamic  Gospel. 
The  daughters  of  men  were  outsiders.  So  their  lusts  caused 
them   to    violate  Gospel  rules ;    excluding  God's  hand   in   the 


214  Sun  and  Moon  stand  Still. 

matter,  tliej  weut  outside  and  chose  wives  for  tliemselves.  Again 
he  says :  "■  The  children  of  men  built  a  tower  to  reach  the  abode 
of  the  gods.  ''  It  seems  the  Colonel  is  at  the  same  folly  now, 
which  must  end  just  as  disastrously  as  theirs  did,  in  great  con- 
fusion of  tongues,  with  all  the  Infidel  tower-builders,  of  whom 
the  Colonel  seems  to  l)e  master  mason.  They  will  fail  to  under- 
stand each  other.  Won't  that  be  sad  ?  He  also  found  that  "  the 
sun  and  moon  were  stopped  a  whole  day  to  give  a  certain  general 
more  time  to  kill  Amaleldtes,  "  It  was  the  general  himself  that 
performed  this  feat.  This  is  a  true  story.  IN^ow,  let  the  Colonel 
answer  me  "  without  looking  around  for  pictures  or  poetrv.  " 
"Where  were  the  sun  and  moon  that  were  addressed  by  Joshua  ? 
Were  they  up  in  the  blue  sky  ?  The  book  says  they  were  on 
Gil)eon  and  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon.  He  says  he  read  the  book 
for  a  purpose.  AYas  it  for  the  purpose  of  warping  the  language 
and  making  it  say  what  it  does  not  ?  Is  this  fair  ?  If  the  sun  and 
moon  were  M'here  the  book  says  they  were,  why  should  he  place 
them  elsewhere  ?  What  was  it  that  was  on  Gibeon  and  in  the 
valley  ?  Answer :  Two  great  Gentile  armies,  whose  assistance 
Joshua  refused.  They  obeyed  Joshua  and  stood  still  in  the  midst 
of  heaven  or  happiness  for  the  space  of  a  whole  day,  to  see 
Joshua  discomfit  their  enemies  without  their  assistance.  The 
Colonel  is  not  to  be  blamed  for  his  unbelief  here,  for  he  is  a 
natural  man  and  cannot  yet  ''  receive  the  things  nor  workings  of 
the  spirit  of  God.  They  are  yet  foolishness  to  him, "  but  he 
will  neither  be  "  roasted  nor  damned  for  it.  "  He  is  now  a  star 
of  the  first  magnitude  in  the  inlidel  constellation,  which  may  yet 
be  (using  his  own  metaphor)  "  a  glittering  thought  of  the  Infin- 
ite. "  It  is  not  objectionable  that  God  first  made  man  male  and 
female  and  afterward  made  him  or  them  man  and  wife.  If  the 
first  man  was  made  with  intellect  and  reason  from  the  ground  on 
which  the  animal  creation  stood,  the  second  was  made  a  spiritual 
man  or  "  living  soul ''  from  the  dust  of  the  ground  on  which  the 
animo-intellectual  man  stood,  for  now  God  "  breathed  into  him 
the  breath  of  spiritual  life  and  man  became  a  living  soul.  "  This 
is  progress  from  the  animal  to  the  intellectual,  and  from  the 
intellectual  to  the  spiritual.  The  Colonel  has  taken  the  first 
degree,  but  not  the  second  ;  that  is  the  reason  he  "  cannot  receive 
the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  "  He  sadly  needs  the  spiritual 
inbreathing  so  that  he  may  be  made  a  living  soul,  and  be  in  the 
image  of  God.     He  facetiously  asks  us  if  we  ''  believe  in   the 


Infidel    Mistakes.  215 

rib-story  in  getting  a  wife  for  Adam?"  We  answer  we  do,  but 
do  not  expect  to  get  the  "harp"  for  this  belief.  We  believe  it 
because  it  is  every  way  consistent  and  rational.  The  Colonel  has 
education  enough  to  know  that  the  word  Adam  may  mean  the 
race  or  aii  individual  thereof.  So  while  Adam  or  Adam-kind 
slept,  God  took  therefrom  a  rib,  binder  or  wife  for  Adam,  and 
closed  up  the  flesh  or  flesh  relation  thereof  as  daughter,  and  took 
her  to  Adam  for  his  wife.  She  coming  from  the  same  place  that 
Adam  did,  and  being  made  of  the  same  material,  she  was  bone  of 
his  bone,  and  flesh  of  his  flesh  —  "the  twain  were  one  flesh!" 
"Don't  you  see?"  But  he  further  mistakes  when  he  says: 
"  You  will  see  by  reading  the  second  chapter  that  God  tried  to 
palm  off  on  Adam  a  beast  for  a  helpmeet."  We  flnd  no  such 
proposition  hinted  at.  The  Colonel  has  need  to  come  to  the  con- 
fessional. He  says  :  "  I  am  probably  the  only  man  in  the  United 
States  who  has  read  the  Bible  through  this  year."  "  Jus' so," 
old  Si  would  say ;  "  I'se  jist  done  readin' 

DE    ELEMENTS    OB    EUCLID, 

an'  I  is  de  only  man  in  the  U.  S.  dat  has  red  'em  thro'  dis  yeah. 
1  can  see  all  dem  marks  an'  angles  an'  ])iiits  as  well  as  da  can,  an' 
da  all  'mounts  to  nuffin',  caze  dese  geometries  tells  us  dat  three 
angles  of  a  plain  triangle  is  ekal  to  two,  dat  is,  two  is  ekal  to 
three.  My  son  Bob  knows  better  'an  dat.  I  'monstrates  de 
'surdity  ob  it  in  dis  way :  I  takes  three  dollars  and  la3's  'em  down 
on  de  points  of  de  triangle,  den  I  takes  two  dollars  an'  lays  'em 
down  on  de  two  angles,  and  I  says,  sonny,  is  dese  ekal  ?  '  No, 
sah,  de  three  is  de  most.'  '  You's  right,  sonny ;  rake  'em  off.' 
So  de  'surdity  is  'monstrated."  It  seems  to  have  been  just  so 
with  the  Colonel.  He  read  the  Bible  all  through,  and  thought 
he  saw  all  the  points  and  absurdities,  and  could  knock  it  into 
smithereens  and  satisfy  the  world  that  it  was  one  general,  pro- 
longed hoax  and  fish  story,  and  unworthy  of  credence,  and  he 
succeeded  just  as  well  as  did  old  Si  in  solving  the  problems  of 
Euclid,  and  but  very  little  better.  He  seemed  not  to  realize  the 
magnitude  of  the  task  before  him,  and  that  it  required  far  more 
labor  and  study  to  comprehend  it  than  is  required  to  comprehend 
Euclid.  He  should  have  known  that  no  man  with  prepossession 
against  a  book  is  fit  to  examine  it.  Such  cannot  do  it  justice. 
He  goes  on  in  his  simple  way  to  say :  "  God  having  used  up  the 
nothing  in  making  Adam,  he  was  compelled  to  take  one  of  his 


216  Metaphorical  Hornets  and  Snakes. 

ribs  with  which  to  make  him  a  wife."  This  has  been  explained. 
I  cannot  notice  all  the  good  points  in  the  Colonel's  two  discourses 
before  me,  but  will  say  his  remarks  regarding  the  census  or  num- 
bering the  children  of  Israel  are  correct,  and  to  the  point.  Right 
here  the  Hebrew  consonants  must  have  been  misplaced.  "Will 
add  further,  that  the  Colonel  has  said  many  things  good  and  true, 
for  which  I  give  him  thanks.  But  he  mistakes  the  hornets  when 
he  savs :  "  Do  you  believe  that  God  Almighty  ever  M^ent  into 
partnership  with  hornets  ? "  A  good  deal  of  his  irony  will  be 
moonshine  when  I  inform  him  that  the  hornets  had  just  as  many 
legs  as  had  our  Louisiana  Tigers  in  the  late  war,  and  the  snakes 
the  same  as  the  Copperheads.  The  Colonel  himself  makes  use  of 
such  metaphor  when  he  says :  "  Slimy  snakes  of  lust  and  hatred." 
Must  we  consider  them  to  be  rattlesnakes  ?  Be  consistent.  Colonel. 
But  I  pass  on.  The  jugglery  spoken  of  is  easily  explained.  The 
rods  that  were  thrown  down  becoming  serpents,  were  the  tortuous 
arguments  jyro  and  con.  Moses  had  the  best  of  the  argument ; 
the  consequence  was,  his  swallowed  the  others.  So  all  the  Colonel's 
"  wit  and  fun  fire"  are  spoiled  on  this  branch  of  the  subject.  The 
Colonel,  I  must  say,  shows  much  ignorance  of  Bible  language  in 
the  latter  half  of  His  discourse.  He  may  say  I  am  not  warranted 
in  thus  metaphorizing  —  but  a  cunning,  crooked  argument  may 
be  called  a  serpent,  just  as  well  as  the  lust  he  spoke  of  can  be 
called  slimy  snakes.  He  seems  not  to  be  able  to  think  of  God 
only  as  some  being  external  to  man,  perhaps  fifty  feet  high. 
While  the  Infinite  alM'ays  speaks  within,  He  never  did  nor  ever 
will  speak  externally  to  His  creatures.  If  man  speaks  God's  word 
to  another  it  is  modified  to  his  highest  unfoldment,  except  it  may 
be  a  medium  under  spirit  control  using  human  organs ;  then  it  is 
the  highest  unfoldment  of  such  spirit.  Part  of  his  discourse,  I 
am  compelled  to  saj^,  is  silly  clap-trap,  and  undeserving  the  trouble 
of  reply,  as  he  asks  many  times  why  did  not  God  do  so  and  so 
and  so  and  so  ?  He  may  as  well  have  asked  why  did  God  not  do 
every  thing  as  /  think  it  should  have  been  done  ?  But  again,  to 
his  credit  I  must  say,  his  head  sometimes  gets  quite  level.  That 
is,  when  he  gets  the  "  light  and  darkness  partially  divided."  He 
is  truthful  and  right  in  what  he  saj^s  of  the  atonement  doctrine  of 
one  man  dying  for  the  sins  of  another ;  of  the  literal  blood  cf 
Christ  cleansing  any  soul.  He  says  his  reason  for  attacking  the 
Book  is  because  it  teaches  this  infamous  doctrine,  and  says,  "  I 
deny  it."     So  do  I  deny  it,  and  also  deny  that  the  Book  teaches 


Infidel   Mistakes.  217 

any  such  doctrine  when  properly  understood.     In  tliis  the  clergy 
preach 

WHAT    THE    BOOK    DOES    NOT    TEACH. 

The  book  is  right  and  teaches  the  very  reverse  of  this.  The 
way  Christ  died  for  the  sins  of  the  world  was  by  dying  to  sin 
Himself,  setting  the  world  an  example  to  follow  Him  in  dying 
the  same  death.  It  teaches  "  the  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die ; 
every  man  shall  be  rewarded  according  to  his  works,  not  his  be- 
liefs, but  his  works ;  they  that  have  done  good  shall  come  forth 
to  the  resurrection  of  life ;  he  that  committeth  sin  is  of  the  devil; 
be  ye  doers  of  the  work  and  not  idle  hearers  of  the  word,"  and 
much  more  to  the  same  purpose.  It  was  in  bad  taste,  to  say  the 
least,  for  the  Colonel  to  throw  a  stone  at  the  Saviour  for  saying 
''  Depart  from  Me  ye  cursed,"  etc.  Matthew  goes  on  to  tell  what 
these  fellows  on  the  left  hand  were  guilty  of.  The  Colonel 
himself  would,  hardly  be  willing  to  keep  the  company  of  such. 
See  Matt,  xxiv,  41. 

The  Colonel  is  to  be  thanked  for  admitting  that  all  is  not  lit- 
eral :  and  the  fact  that  it  was  not  printed  till  the  year  1448,  and 
suffered  by  the  hands  of  translators,  should  make  us  the  more 
careful  to  get  its  true  meaning.  The  prophet's  ravens  were 
doubtless  of  the  species  homo  as  well  as  Sampson's  foxes.  With 
all  its  apparent  failings  the  Bible  was  acknowledged  by  Daniel 
Webster,  Dr.  Franklin,  and  many  others  of  the  greatest  minds  of 
this  or  any  other  age,  to  be  the  Book  of  Books,  nowhere  equaled 
in  its  sublime  eloquence,  poetry  and  inspiration ;  some  of  it  so 
grand  and  inspiring  it  w^ould  seem  to  have  been  sung  out  from 
the  rolling  spheres.  O  !  nay.  Colonel,  you  need  not  try  to  equal 
it.  It  must  be,  especially  the  New  Testament,  the  pole-star  of 
the  world  for  at  least  many  thousands  years.  Though  I'm  be- 
coming tedious,  I  need  not  apologize  for  reading  an  extract  or 
two  from  an  article  just  from  the  pen  of  the  unostentatious,  but 
able  founder  and  leader  of  the  Oneida  community,  Jno.  H, 
Noyes,  confirmatory  of  what  I  have  said.  *  *  * 

"  From  Jndea  the  Bible  went  forth  into  the  Gentile  world  and 
overturned  the  idolatrous  systems  of  Rome  and  the  whole  Ro- 
man Empire.  *  *  The  breaking  up  of  the  central 
power  of  heathenism  is  fairly  attributed  to  it.  *  *  * 
It  is  the  very  heart  of  all  the  free  movement  that  is  now  going 
on  in  this  country.  *  '-^  It  is  now  the  best  friend  of 
28 


218  Injuring  and  IIelpino  God, 

the  future   and    truest  opponeut  of  tlie  dead  past.  *  * 

It  has  proved  itself  the  mightiest  enemy  of  all  those  systems 
and  institutions  that  have  abused  mankind.  •«•  *  * 

Any  who  will  look  at  its  central  doctrine  will  see  that  nothing 
can  satisfy  the  demand  of  Bible  radicalism  short  of  destroying  all 
sin  and  selfishness  and  the  actual  establishment  of  heaven  on 
earth."  —  [American  Socialist,  page  S-i-i.]  ]^o  one  can  success- 
fully gainsay  these  truths.  But  the  Colonel,  being  yet  a  "  natural 
man,  cannot  receive  them."  He  speaks  of  the  children  mocking 
a  gentleman  with  short  hair,  and  ridicules  the  idea  of  God  send- 
ing two  she-bears  to  stop  their  clatter.  It  is  an  easy  thing  to  be 
torn  in  pieces,  while  the  body  is  left  intact.  The  tongues  of 
those  two-legged  she-bears  doubtless  did  the  tearing  in  pieces  of 
these  saucy  children,  and  who  does  not  know  how  quickly  two 
earnest  women  could  settle  up  with  naughty  boys  ?  They  were 
doubtless  God-directed.  The  Colonel  says  he  can  neither  "  injure 
nor  help  God."  ]^ow,  God  is  love  and  goodness  in  the  human 
heart ;  it  is  each  one's  part  so  to  speak  of  the  infinite :  to  help 
increase  these  in  any  soul  is  to  help  God ;  to  decrease  them  is  to 
injure  God  in  them,  not  in  His  wholeness,  but  in  the  individual ; 
as  the  good  book  says,  it  is 

"fighting  against  god." 

So  I  w^ould  say  for  the  Colonel,  instead  of  closing  his  discourse 
with  a  quotation  from  Burns,  it  would  have  been  more  to   the 
purpose  to  have  quoted  from  Moody  and  Sankey  : 
'  The  mistakes  of  my  life  have  been  many.  " 

In  a  subsequent  discourse  the  Colonel  has  the  boldness  to  say : 
'•  The  reason  I  say  the  Bible  is  not  written  by  any  God  is  because 
I  can  write  a  l)etter  book  myself."  Take  up  the  pen,  Colonel.  If 
true,  there's  millions  in  it.  The  difference  between  God's  and 
man's  w^ork,  1  re]3eat,  is  this :  Whatever  is  done,  man  being  the 
instrument,  which  is  untainted  by  any  of  the  lower,  animal  im- 
pulses, is  the  work  of  God,  by  the  influence  of  his  spirit.  But  the 
contrary  is  the  work  of  man.  So  if  the  penman  of  the  sacred 
volume,  in  any  part  thereof,  was  actuated  or  influenced  by  any  of 
the  lower  animal  passions  or  inipulses,  this  part  was  man's  work. 
On  the  contrary,  it  was  God's. 

Christ  spake  from  the  operatien  of  God's  spirit  acting  on  the 
higher  consciousness;  hence  His  word  was  the  word  of  God.  A  great 
many  foolish  questions  may  be  asked,  such  as  "  Why  did  not  God, 
the  Inftnite,  give  a  perfect  word  through  an  imperfect  unfolding  ? " 


Infidel   Mistakes.  219 

Had  he  done  so,  progression  would  have  been  at  an  end.  Why 
did  He  not  make  man  impeccable  ?  Why  did  not  the  Infinite 
Himself  write  it?  Why  did  not  God  create  man  as  perfect  as 
Himself?  That  is,  to  inquire  wdiy  man  was  created  at  all? 
Any  creature  from  the  hand  of  God  must  be  less  perfect  than  Him- 
self; then  there  is  a  road  of  progression  open  to  him.  All  the 
multitudinous  questions  asked  by  the  Colonel,  why  God  did  not 
do  so  and  so  instead  of  what  He  did,  exhibit  his  ignorance  of  Him 
and  establish  the  truth  of  the  text  that  "  The  natural  man  receiveth 
not  the  things  of  the  spirit  of  God,  because  they  are  foolishness  to 
him."  I  am  compelled,  however,  to  admit  that  the  most  of  the 
criticisms  of  the  Chicagoan  clergy  fell  still-born.     All  their  flung 

javelins  only 

"  Played  durl  upon  the  bone 
And  did  no  more,  " 

while  their  antagonist  walked  off  with  the  belt.  But  all  the 
questions  put  to  these  clergymen  are  answerable  ;  but  I  must  content 
myself  with  a  few  which  may  answer  for  the  rest.  He  says :  "  I 
want  these  ministers  to  say  it,  and  to  say  it  without  evasion  or  any 
pious  construction,  whether  they  believe  the  Eternal  God  of  the 
Universe  ever  upheld  the  crime  of  polygamy  ?  "  I  answer  yea. 
Why?  because  poh^gamy  was  progress  in  the  right  direction. 
It  was  one  step  forward  from  animal  promiscuity  where  the  beast 
with  the  longest  horns  took  the  prey.  All  those  who  came  into 
this  regulation  obeved  God  in  so  doins^.  When  lio-ht  is 
insufiicient  to  bind  men  to  one  wife,  it  were  better  to  be 
bound  to  three  than  to  be  led  by  unrestrained  passion  bound 
to  none ;  but  to  go  back  from  one  wife  to  three  is  progress  in  the 
wrong  direction.  One  wife  was  the  next  step  upward ;  and  no 
wife  wnth  a  perfect  restraint  of  the  animal  which  was  introduced 
by  Christ  when  the  angel  life  began,  was  and  is  the  highest.  So, 
Colonel,  "if  thou  wouldst  be  perfect  go  sell  that  thou  hast  and  give 
to  the  poor,  and  come  take  up  the  cross  and  follow  me."  Then 
we  might  expect  the  Colonel,  instead  of  telling  what  he  hated,  to 
tell  his  audience  to  "  love  their  enemies,  to  do  good  for  evil,  and 
when  smitten  on  one  cheek  to  turn  the  other,  to  resist  not  evil,  to 
love  and  do  good  to  those  who  hate  you  and  despitefully  use  you,  " 
etc.,  etc.  Then  his  happiness  would  be  of  the  angel  kind,  instead 
of  the  animal,  with  which  he  now  seems  content.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  slavery  as  of  polygamy.  No  part  of  the  world  has  yet 
been  freed  from  it.     The  United  States  has  many  thousands  in 


220  Slavery  of  To-day„ 

her  jails  and  penitentiaries,  and  still  more,  soldiers  who  are  the 
most  abject  slaves,  and  the  white  slavery  at  the  North  under  a 
cloak  of  pretended  freedom  is  but  little  less  odious  than  was  the 
black  slavery  in  the  South,  and  the  Colonel  himself  is  a  slaveholder 
if  he  has  a  waiting  maid  to  do  his  bidding,  and  the  only  hope  of 
deliverance  is  that  some  time  in  the  lone;  as^es  the  whole  world 
may  be  gathered  into  grand  communities  of  equal  members  and 
equal  rights  and  obligations,  natural  and  spiritual  —  one  the  order 
of  nature  ^lower-floor —  one  the  order  of  grace  —  upper-floor  — 
one  for  generation  freed  from  its  common  abuses  —  the  other  for 
regeneration  to  wholly  spiritualize  and  complete  the  happiness  that 
was  barely  begun  below.  But  now,  any  one  holding  another  in 
any  of  these  phases  of  slavery  who  is  wholly  actuated  by  philan- 
thropic motives  is  God-directed.  Kow  I  have  answered  the 
Colonel  on  the  square  without  "  going  off  into  any  rhetoric  or 
fire  works."  Bat  the  Colonel,  in  his  maidenish  simplicity,  still 
harps  about  God  outside  of  his  creatures,  whom  he  saddles  with 
all  that  he  now  conceives  to  be  wrong,  and  whom  he  hates  invet- 
erately,  when  none  such  exists  only  in  his  fancy.  But  he  mounts 
the  tower  Avhich  he  has  builded,  and  dares  and 

DEFIES    ALL    TUE    GODS, 

little  and  big,  and  tells  them  to  their  faces  how  much  he  hates 
them  for  ordering  men  to  kill  the  babies  of  their  enemies  and  old 
men  and  w^onien,  and  saving  the  maids  to  satisfy  their  animal 
passions.  In  this  he  reminds  me  of  a  noted  darkey  when  the  light- 
nino;  killed  his  little  daus^hter.  He  carried  her  into  his  cabin  and 
mourned  over  her,  but  got  madder  and  madder  at  the  thunder  god, 
finally  threw  off  his  coat,  bared  his  head  and  walked  out  into  the 
storm,  and  looking  up  at  the  clouds  he  told  God  how  cowardly 
it  was  to  "  come  down  and  kill  dat  little  lamb,"  and  added,  '*  You 
think  you  done  a  great  thing  in  doin'  dat.  N"ow  I  dar's  you.  jis 
comedown  and  try  your  han'  on  old  Sam."  After  waiting  a  rea- 
sonable time,  and  God  didn't  come,  he  went  back  into  his  cabin 
to  his  lubbin  wife,  one  whom,  like  the  Colonel,  he  lubbed  better 
than  any  God,  and  said :  "  Kate,  I  dar'd  God,  but  he  wouldn't 
come ;  da  all  knows  da  ar'  gettin'  into  business  when  da  tackles 
old  Sam."  I  presume  the  Colonel  felt  himself  quite  as  much  of 
a  hero  after  defying  all  the  gods  of  the  universe,  and  none  came 
to  defend  themselves.  But  this  hating  either  Deity  or  His  instru- 
ments for  any  thing  that  now  seems  wrong  to  us  is  folly.  The 
Colonel  himself,  when  he  speaks  from  the  highest  instead  of  the 


Infidel    Mistakes.  221 

lower  impulse,  speaks  God's  word  to  him.  as  imperfect  as  it  is. 
Should  we  hate  either  him  or  God  in  consequence  of  it  ?  J^ot  at 
all.  What  is  applicable  to  him  is  applicable  to  others.  He 
accuses  the  Bible  of  teaching  witchcraft,  and  says  that  "  God 
made  a  trade  with  the  devil,  and  sent  evil  spirits  out  of  men  into 
pigs,  and  then  drowned  the  pigs  !  God  got  a  corner  on  that." 
I  would  inform  him  that  the  swinish  multitude  that  were  too 
much  of  hogs  to  hear  the  Saviour  into  whom  the  evil  spirits 
entered,  on  hearing  his  testimony,  fled  and  ran  down  the  preci- 
pice of  vice  and  was  drowned  in  the  great  sea  of  humanity. 
That's  the  corner  that  God  got  in  this  transaction.  If  the  Colonel 
would  subdue  his  irony  and  strive  as  hard  to  make  people  serious 
as  he  does  to  make  them  laugh,  he  might  do  great  good  in  the 
world,  for  many  fine  talents  are  given  him.  Equally  mistaken  is 
he  in  regard  to  Jephtha's  daughter,  whose  vow  was  to  give  to  the 
Lord  and  not  to  man.  His  great  regret  was  that  she  could  not 
have  offspring,  but  had  to  remain  a  virgin  unto  the  Lord,  and 
as  the  book  says,  "  Jephtha  did  according  to  his  vow,  and  she 
knew  no  man."  This  is  fire  enough,  and  this  only  was  the  burnt 
offering  and  the  sadness  of  the  story  all  told.  So  we  think  well 
of  the  man  who  was  true  to  his  vow,  and  also  well  of  the  Lord 
who  accepted  the  offering.  But  we  cannot  follow  the  Colonel 
through  all  his  questions,  but  enough  have  been  answered  to  sat- 
isfy the  general  demand.  He  seems  to  be  partially  insane  on 
the  woman  subject.  He  says:  "If  there  is  a  pure  thing  on 
earth  —  a  picture  of  infinite  purity  —  it  is 

A    MOTHER    WITH    A    CHILD 

in  her  arms."  A  ba])ooii  would  think  the  identical  same  thing, 
and  with  as  good  a  show  of  reason.  Would  he  say  a  harlot,  who 
had  conceived  and  had  a  child  in  her  arms,  was  the  picture  of 
infinite  purity  ?  She  is  a  woman  and  had  her  babe  by  the  same 
process  of  all  others.  What  can  the  Colonel  say  about  that  ?  Is 
that  a  purifying  process  or  a  contaminating  one  ?  Come,  Colonel, 
yes  or  no.  Don't  run  off  into  pictures  of  woman's  love  and 
beauty.  Answer  square.  Is  the  harlot's  a  purifying,  angel-like 
process?  "Honor  bright,"  say:  Pure  and  holy  or  sensual  and 
animal  ?  No  grunting  ;  "  walk  up  to  the  rack  and  answer  on  the 
square."  He  objects  strongly  that  the  Jews  considered  it  im- 
pure. But  I  think  the  Jews  have  "a  corner  on  this."  Bruin 
thinks  just  as  highly  of  it  as  the  Colonel  possibly  can.     He  seems 


222  Breath  of  Spiritual  Life. 

to  have  no  more  idea  that  any  inipurity  attends  any  part  of  the 
process  of  generation  than  a  tom-cat.  ''  Yes,"  lie  exultingly 
says,  "  I  think  more  of  a.  good  woman  with  a  child  (I  presume 
he  hates  a  virgin)  than  I  do  of  all  the  gods  I  have  heard  the 
people  tell  about."  I  do  not  doubt  the  truth  of  this  assertion, 
because  he  is  a  natural  man  only,  and  "  receiveth  not  the  things 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  "  —  can  see  nothing  above  the  animal  pkne. 
Bat  we  neither  blame  nor  hate  him  for  it ;  all  he  needs  is  a 
higher  unfolding  of  Spirit  with  his  brilliant  intellect.  Then  he 
will  learn  that  he  himself  was  "  conceived  in  sin  and  brought 
forth  in  iniquity."  He  badly  needs  an  Adamic  creation,  and 
that  God  should  breathe  into  his  soul  the  breath  of  spiritual  life, 
so  that  lie,  like  Adam,  may  become  a  living  soul.  To  this  end 
we  pray  the  Father. 


